Welcomed Second Chance
by Darashiko
Summary: When I closed my eyes for eternity, I didn't think 'eternity' would be cut so short. So when I find myself in the body of an 8-years-old Naruto Uzumaki, I decided to delay the next 'eternity' as long as possible. After all, I have to break my record of living for only 19 years.
1. The Curious Case of Naruto Uzumaki

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.**

OxoxO

It was just another day for Hiruzen Sarutobi. Wake up, get dressed, have breakfast, get to his office and face the continuous barrage of paperwork that keeps coming all day long. And it gets boring really quick. That's why now a day he has to keep his trusty pipe always in his robes. There are moments, when he wonders if overpricing paper would save him from this eternal trouble.

Right now he was putting tobacco in his pipe to enjoy his daily dose of cancer while he watches the sunset from his office window. The view wasn't anything compared to the view from Hokage Mountain, but he doesn't have the luxury to go to that place with a pile of papers on his desk.

Just before he could light his pipe, there was a knock on his office door.

"Lord Hokage, its Mr. Inoichi." His secretary's voice came from the other side of the door.

"Let him in."

A tall man with long ash blonde hair and green eyes entered the room a moment later.

"Inoichi," the aged leader greeted his subordinate. "Since you came here, I take it you successfully watched Fu's memory?"

Ah yes. Fu Yamanaka, an agent in his old rival Danzo's Root. He was found in comatose Naruto's hospital room. The boy has gone in comatose state after he unlocked his chakra. According to medics, his condition was known as Yin-Yang Imbalance. The boy's Yin chakra has increased almost 4 times than his Yang chakra. This sudden increase has put the almost 8 years old boy in coma. He spent last 2 months in a hospital bed. A week ago a nurse found a masked shinobi in his room, both of his hands on either side Naruto's forehead, unconscious and drained of chakra. The shinobi was put in T&I prison cell immediately, but the interrogation had to wait due to his almost null chakra reserve. After investigation, the masked shinobi was identified as Fu Yamanaka, a boy who was recruited by Danzo 4 years ago. And that worried Hiruzen immensely. As a Yamanaka, Fu ought to know many things about human psyche and how to change them. Whatever jutsu he used on Naruto, is sure to be something dangerous, especially a jutsu that leaves the caster in that state.

His worry intensified later in the evening. Naruto woke up that day before noon. According to the ANBU assigned as his guard after the incident, Naruto's change in behavior was noticeable from the moment he woke up. He talked with the nurse and doctor politely instead of his usual brash attitude. His voice was calm where it used to be loud to attract attention from anyone nearby. And most importantly, he hasn't announced his dream to become Hokage once in the past few days. Whatever Fu did, it changed Naruto from hyperactive knucklehead to calm and mellow.

And then there was his sudden increase in skillset. Hiruzen had sent Naruto his allowance the before he went to coma. Naruto used the money to buy several sets of clothes, grocery and surprisingly various types of stationary goods. All under the guise of a transformation jutsu. True the jutsu has been demonstrated in his academy class but it was in his time in hospital. And according to his guard, he practiced chakra control exercises following days that weren't included in academy's curriculum.

Last thing he did before turning in, was finding the classmates who left get-well-soon cards in his hospital room, Chouji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, Kiba Inuzuka and Hinata Hyuga. He presented all of them packs of candies as thanks. It seems even though he isn't trying to get attention to himself, he is determined to make friends.

"I was Lord Hokage," Inoichi replied. "And what I saw left me confused and worried. Whatever Fu intended to do to Naruto didn't succeed."

"But Fu was found drained of chakra. Surely he used some kind of jutsu."

"Lord Hokage," Inoichi knew he was treading on egg shell. If words got out that a Yamanaka tried to change a jinchuriki's psyche, they will be under heavy suspicion. It wouldn't matter that said Yamanaka was under the war hawk Danzo's command. There was no proof aside from Fu's memory that he didn't get a chance to cast any jutsu. The only one who can confirm this was Naruto himself and said boy was already showing drastic change in his personality. Hard to not know when his own daughter complains how Naruto is trying to act 'cool' like Sasuke in dinner table. "I assure you whatever Fu intended to do to Naruto didn't come to pass. In his inner world, Naruto didn't even give him any chance to do anything."

"You mean to say that he can manifest himself in his inner world?" Now Hiruzen was astonished. No children Naruto's age should have the ability to manifest themselves in their inner world.

"He can, Lord Hokage. And the surprising thing is the representation of his self in his inner world is that of a young man in his early 20s or late teens. From what I've heard from his medical report, I think it has something to do with the sudden increase in his yin chakra." He produced a seal tag from his pocket. "I have recorded Fu's memory of his journey in Naruto's inner world." He placed the tag on Hiruzen's desk. "You should watch their interaction before you decide their fate."

"Then let's watch the show." A third voice came from the room's window sill. Inoichi turned his head to the newcomer while Hiruzen just let out a sigh.

"Jiraiya, how many times did I tell you to use the door?" Hiruzen asked his student in an irritated voice.

"Too many times to count." Jiraiya replied with grin on his face. Then his face turned serious. "So are we going to see it?"

"Yes, we are." The Hokage replied. He signaled his ANBU guards to leave the room and put up a privacy seal. He went to one of the wall and pushed a bit of his chakra into a small seal. A part of the wall slides off to reveal a mirror. "Inoichi, please place the tag on the mirror."

Inoichi did as his leader commanded and took his place beside his leader and the toad Sannin. The tag sank into the mirror and the mirror emitted a bright white light. After the light subsided, the mirror started showing Fu's memory.

 **The first scene that was showed was that of Fu perched on a tree-branch near the hospital. It was night time. He scanned the hospital windows from his vantage point. After he found the one he was looking for he left the branch via Body Flicker. After a moment he appeared in a room's sun-shade. The nurse in the room was checking up its occupant. After the nurse left the room, he entered the room silently.**

 ** _'No nurse is coming to check up on him for before 6 o'clock. Enough time to finish my work here.'_ Fu's thought was heard by the viewers.**

 **He went near the hospital bed. On the bed Naruto was sleeping with a content smile on his face. For almost 2 months, the boy was in a coma. The reason for this was worrying for Danzo. Increase in yin chakra means increase in knowledge and experience. There is no telling what the boy will do with this.**

 **Fu crouched on the floor beside the bed. He went through several handseals and then placed his hands on both sides Naruto's forehead. ' _Secret Art: Inner World Entry'_ he intoned to cast the jutsu.**

 **The room vanished from Fu's vision. It was replaced with bright sky and a never ending grassy plain. However the grassy plain wasn't empty. For as far he could see, he saw thick pillars scattered throughout the plain. They were connected with each other via ropes. The ropes had strings coming out of them and papers of various sizes were hanging from them. In far corner he could see new pillars rising. Moment after they rose to full length, ropes shot out from the structures and latched to other pillars. Papers grew from the ground and flew towards the ropes. Strings grew from the ropes and papers attached themselves to the strings.**

 ** _'The way his mind palace looks, it he just piles up any information he gathers. It would be hard to find out what kind of knowledge he possess and how much.'_ Fu thought to himself as he walked forward. After few moments of walking he saw 3 stone monoliths. The one on the right had a figure of a prancing stag carved on it. In the stone carving, the stag had a crown around its neck. Underneath the carving there was something written in English.**

 ** _'Ours is the fury.'_ Fu read to himself. _'A rules he lives by? May be his pranks are a way of unleashing his fury.'_ He moved to the next one. This one had a carving of a snarling wolf. Unlike the previous one, this carving doesn't have any additional gear on the figure. It also had writings underneath it. _'Winter is coming. I am missing some context here. The way it is written, it should mean some kind of warning. But a short season like winter could hardly be a warning.'_ Next carving didn't look much. At first glance it looked like a human body hung upside down on cross. However in closer inspection muscles, tendons and veins could be seen on the body. _'A human body without skin, hung upside down. This certainly represents cruelty.'_ He looked underneath the carving. _'And the words. Our blades are sharp. All these words give off warning. Only this carving shows what actually will happen to anyone who will wrong him.'_ **

**Shiver went down his spine. A person's inner world was his own domain. As long as he has the will power, he can do anything in here. By any chance if Uzumaki gets a wind of him then, judging by the words and the last carving, he will make him experience all kind of hell. It might not do any kind of physical damage, but the mental trauma could keep him bedridden for days. _'However Uzumaki is still a child. He couldn't have access to his inner world.'_**

 **"And that's where you are wrong." Fu whirled his head so fast, if did it in real world, his neck would certainly have snapped. Owner of the voice had features eerily similar to Naruto Uzumaki. However whereas Naruto was a boy of 8, this person was young man in his late teen or early 20s. All in all, the person looked how Naruto would grow up to be as an adult. His clothing consists of green long sleeved shirt, white cargo pant and black sandals. He was sitting on the monolith with wolf carving.**

 **On instinct, Fu reached for his tanto. "Who are you?" Fu could already guess who this person is but it's hard to believe a child could manifest himself in his inner world as a grown up.**

 **"You are trespassing my domain and you are asking me who I am?" the man admonished him with an amused smile on his face.**

 **At the end of his sentence, chains shot from the monolith with flayed man and wrapped around Fu's legs, hands and neck. The chain pulled back and he was hung on the cross carved on the monolith upside down, the same way as the flayed man. He struggled to free himself from the chain but to no avail. _'I have to free myself from! No matter what, I have to report this to Lord Danzo!'_**

 **"So a guy named Danzo is gunning for me, huh." Naruto replied. Amused smile that was previously on his face is replaced with a look of curiosity.**

 **"How did you find out? Are you a mind reader?"**

 **"You are in my inner world. Everything you think, I will know the moment you do that. You wouldn't need to speak to inform me anything." Naruto jumped from his perch on the monolith and strolled to Fu. "I have the answers to my questions. Now it's time for your punishment." He said as he placed his palm over Fu's forehead.**

 **"What are you going to do to me?"**

 **"Earlier I discovered that I can share my chakra with others. Now I want to see if I can take from others as well. If my trial is successful, it will speed up my recovery. You see, at the rate my own reserve is growing; I would have enough to wake up by tomorrow afternoon. Your reserve is one-fortieth of my own. It would save me a few hours and I don't want to waste my time in hospital more than I already have. Now, go to sleep."**

And with that mirror came turned to its usual state. There was pin drop silence in the office. Inoichi has already seen Fu's memory so he knew what was coming. But the other 2 adults in the room were surprised by Naruto's appearance and mannerism in his inner world.

"Sensei," Jiraiya looked over his old mentor. "What should we do about Naruto? After what we saw, we can't act like he is just another kid."

"That's true. But we don't know everything about his personality yet. His interaction with Fu was very brief. We can't judge him by that single interaction alone. And if he is an adult in mind, he is sure to keep many things to himself." The aged leader felt his age catching up with him. Before he watched the recorded memory, Naruto was like grandson to him. But now he didn't know how he felt for the boy. The words etched on the monoliths worried him, especially the last one. He knew how treatment of populace of a hidden village changes a jinchuriki and there is little to nothing good about it. At best, they become aloof and start to detest human contact and at worst, they become bloodthirsty maniac. Sure he didn't do anything to Fu or any villagers since he woke up but how long would he stay his hands?

"There is no better way than having a heart to heart talk then." Jiraiya murmured to himself with a sigh. He looked Hiruzen in the eye. "I am going to get to know him. I wanted to meet him when he grew up a little more. But I guess I can meet him a little early. Otherwise it might be too late."

"How are you going to introduce yourself to him? He might be suspicious after his treatment from the villagers."

"I know. Old man," Jiraiya seemed to hesitate before he said his next words. "if I think it's necessary, I will come clean about our relation."

Hiruzen let out a long sigh at his student's words. He would have to trust Jiraiya's judgment on this. "You have my permission. But do that only if you think he can keep it secret."

"Alright." With that Jiraiya turned to leave via window.

"Wait Jiraiya." Jiraiya turned around as his teacher called him. Hiruzen went to his desk and brought out an envelope from a drawer. "Take this with you."

"What's this?"

"His last 2 months' allowance. I was going to give it to him tomorrow. It won't hurt if he gets the money a bit early."

"Sure, I will take it to him." With that Jiraiya left the office to meet his godson. Internally he thanked Hiruzen to provide him an excuse for the meeting. He was anxious about this meeting. All the letters Hiruzen sent him over the years painted Naruto as a happy go lucky kid. But now it wasn't the case anymore. He would need to see what kind of person Naruto was.

Quick succession of Body Flickers later he stood in the window of Naruto's apartment. He could see the boy sitting on dining table, reading a book and occasionally taking notes. ' _Studying huh. Good to see there is a bit of Minato in him, from sensei's letters, he seemed to be all Kushina._ '

After next Boy Flicker, he stood in the hallway of Naruto's apartment. He was about to knock on the door but he froze after seeing the diagram painted on it. It wasn't there when he checked the apartment few days ago. On the diagram, there was an orange 6 petals flower placed over red and yellow overlapping circles.

 _'Red and yellow makes orange. Does he know about his parents?'_ he shook off the thought about what that means and knocked on the door. _'Time to meet my godson.'_ He took a small breath and knocked on the door. Few seconds later the door opened. There stood the blonde boy, his godson he hadn't met for so many years. Naruto looked at him with cautious eyes.

"Hey kid!" he greeted Naruto in his usual boisterous voice.

"Hey, some old guy I never met before." Jiraiya whipped around as reply came not from the boy standing in front of him but from his side. There was another Naruto walking toward him with grocery bags in his hands.

OxoxO

AN: It's my first time writing a self-insert even though the first chapter has been written in 3rd person. I plan on writing this story in both first person and third person.


	2. Jiraiya Couldn't Meet Me This Early

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.**

* * *

OxoxO

* * *

"Hey guys, wanna know what I learned yesterday!?" Kiba said as we sat in academy courtyard to have our lunch. Our group consisted of me, Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba and Hinata. The day I started attending academy after being discharged from hospital, I asked them to eat lunch together. They were the only classmates who visited me in the hospital. So as thanks, I bought some bentos from grocery store to give them. And they accepted.

Well Kiba wouldn't say no since the bento had some meat. Chouji couldn't say no to free food as it means he could spend extra coins on snacks and Shikamaru tagged along with him. As for Hinata, there is no need to tell.

"What did you learn? Must be exciting." I asked as I opened my lunchbox. I brought sweet potatoes, omelette and tempura.

"Yesterday one of my cousins taught me poker."

"But aren't you a little young to learn gambling?" Chouji asked in between his munching of potato chips. Hinata nodded at his words.

"So what!? Now I can teach it to you guys and we can play when we hang out. We don't have to bet our money or anything!"

"Drink soda instead of sake and act smoking with pochi, we will feel like adults." My words fueled Kiba's enthusiasm even though I didn't put any enthusiasm in them.

"See, Naruto gets it! Hey tomorrow is weekend. What do you say we hang out together tomorrow and play poker?"

"I don't know. If my Pa finds out he will have me grounded."

"And if my mom finds out she won't stop nagging. Which is troublesome."

"You guys can play at my place. No one lives in that building except me and another guy down stair." That was true. The place wasn't a bad place to live, but people avoid the place like plague. That shouldn't be too surprising considering I live there. The other person who lives there, a middle aged man named Ishi, came to Leaf village 4 years after the Nine Tails attack (I think I should call the attack Kurama Catastrophe. Has a nice ring to it.). He runs a food stand in the market district.

"Wouldn't that be a bit of trouble for you?" Hinata asked.

"Nope, I don't get many guests. So you guys are welcome to my place." I waved of her concern. "Although you guys would have to leave before three. My neighbor returns that time to take a nap. And he complains about noise even when I sleep."

That's was how I ended up becoming host for a gambling party of 8 years old kids this morning. Others agreed to bring their own candy but as a host, it was my responsibility to take care of other things for party. Like buying foods and drinks. Which I was carrying at the moment.

I looked left and right to see if there were people who could be paying attention to me. Not that I needed to. In my disguise I am not someone remarkable enough for them to notice. After entering the alley I was standing in front of, I let go of the transformation jutsu. This jutsu was very useful. It already helped me get inside the shops that refused to provide Naruto their service. If I didn't learn the jutsu from Fu's memory then I wouldn't have been able to buy the snacks that I was carrying for tomorrow's meeting with my friends.

You have guessed right. I am Naruto Uzumaki. Although, it wasn't always my identity. I _became_ Naruto only a little more than 2 months ago. Before I became Naruto, I was someone else.

Who I was? How I became Naruto? Well, that's a story for another time. But since I have to start with something, let me tell you how I felt when I found myself in this…. World? Universe? Whatever.

 _O God, the Great and Almighty, grant me courage for the Day of Judgment. Let my good deeds outweigh the bad. Let the flames of hell burn away my sins. Grant me a place in heaven beside my kin._

This was the prayer I said as I closed my eyes. As you can see, there is not even any request of a second chance whatsoever. So imagine my surprise when one moment I felt my heart beat getting slower and slower, it picked up pace the next. _How did this happen? Why did this happen?_ I might have spared a moment to think about it if I wasn't so busy being happy to survive a brush with death.

I was happy that I hadn't kicked the bucket. I would wake up, find myself confined to a hospital bed. I would be released from it in few days. My friends will come to visit me. Then I will go back to my life that was filled with all kind of joy, heartbreak, happiness and drama.

Or that's what I hoped. My happiness turned to confusion when I felt heat of sunlight on my skin. 'Okay, so maybe my bed is near the window and its midday.' That's what I thought. But my confusion grew even more when I opened my eyes and saw myself standing in what seemed to be a playground. There was also a guy who looked like he was cosplaying as Iruka from Naruto, let's call the guy Iruka. That couldn't be right. I did agree to take my cousins to comic con but surely I couldn't have forgotten this much time just because I went into coma. I looked around and saw kids that were around 7-8 years old. What I recognized about them all is that all of them were cosplaying chibi version of most Naruto characters. So it was children's corner. May be there is a play going on for the kids' enjoyment. My attention was diverted by Iruka.

" _Naruto, it's your turn_." I whipped my head around to Iruka. What he said sounded like Japanese. Not a foreign-accent-influenced Japanese but perfect Japanese or as I would say in my language, chusht-japanese. What surprised me more was the fact that I could understand him perfectly. I started learning Japanese as a hobby after I started watching anime and I picked up a few words here and there. But my understanding in that language wasn't supposed to be _that_ good.

" _Naruto, quit spacing out and come here._ " Iruka again said looking directly at me.

" _Coming, sensei._ " My mouth answered before I could even think. My feet started taking steps on their own, as if they were on auto-pilot. Every step my feet took, my mind was assaulted with vivid memories of Naruto's childhood. I saw all of them from a first person point of view. I pushed them all to the back of my mind for the moment.

After I stood in front of Iruka, whose face reminded me of the incident regarding Waterfall ninjas and my- Naruto's subsequent rescue, he told me to put my hands in a ram seal. He instructed to close my eyes and look into myself. It should help me to find my chakra pool. He also said the feeling someone got from their chakra pool was different from person to person.

I gave him a nod and tried to access my inner world. My chakra pool should be somewhere around there. After few moments, I felt like that there was some kind of gas inside my body that has been compressed by too much pressure and albeit slowly, the pressure was increasing. I took a wild guess that it was my chakra pool, and reached out to it. I got a panic attack when I felt the gas decompress in an instant and explode through every pore of my body. Not sure what else happened, but I lost my consciousness, again.

Maybe it was hallucination my brain had concocted to keep me entertained during my coma.

Or to ease my passing.

Except it wasn't.

Many things happened while I was unconscious, mostly in my subconscious mindscape.

I met Minato and Kushina. Meeting them in a pristine white limbo felt as unreal as being a kid again. But when they said it was in fact real; that somehow, I ended up taking over their son's body and replacing him in spirit, I brought my shaking left hand to check the back. Why? I wasn't sure at the moment. But when I saw my birth mark on the back of that hand gone, the truth hit me like cold water in a winter morning.

It took me a while to calm down and take in the stock of the situation. I am not sure how long it took, but Minato and Kushina waited patiently for me recover.

I was unsure about what to say to them or what to do. Because in one hand, it felt wrong to take over someone else's body and denying him his life but on the other hand I was taught that committing suicide or even wishing your own death is a sign of ungratefulness to God's gift and a great sin.

Lucky for me, I didn't get much time to duel on this thought. For some strange reason, Minato and Kushina didn't accuse me of body snatching. When I asked them about it, Minato only said that I would know when I was older; physically that is. For the sake of my sanity, I didn't ask more about it. Most likely they thought I would find the answer in near future and it would be best for me to find out myself.

Moving on from earlier topic, they explained why I lost my consciousness most likely because my current body wasn't used to my spirit. They also told me about how they were able to meet me and why they were meeting me ahead of schedule. After they left the limbo, I thought really hard on my predicament.

I had been pushed into the role of the Child of Prophecy.

I wasn't ready for this role.

I had about 8 years to be up to the challenge.

I wasn't an irresponsible guy but never in my life had I ever imagined to be responsible for the fate of a whole world. Certainly, not after throwing my life.

This was too much. Naruto was a pure soul, who could turn enemies into friends. He would go to great length to save one of his friends. I wasn't anything like that. Sure I cared greatly for my friends and family. But if one of my friends pulled a stunt like Sasuke, I would hang him upside down from a lamppost in a busy street. Naked. And I wouldn't dare say that I was a pure hearted person.

But I hardly had any say on the hand I had been dealt with. So I sat down and meditated on what to do for the future. First of all, I need allies. There was a simple solution for that, Rookie 9 and Team Gai. I would have to wait to break out of comatose state to meet members of Rookie 9 and probably until chunin exam to meet whole Team Gai. But there was currently one potential ally that I could meet now. Although I would have to meet him eventually, I wasn't very eager to meet him. But uncertainty about the duration of my coma and strong possibility to get bored made me rethink.

I made my way to Kurama's cage to talk to him. He was surprised to meet me so early and not to mention to see a teenager instead of a child. He was even more surprised when I walked into his cage. Barring a _little_ scuffle, our meeting went rather peacefully. I introduced myself to him and told him that I want to get to know him and be his friend. In response, he threw me out of his cage with a flick of his tail and said to not show my face anytime soon. When I asked for his name, he refused to tell me. Of course I already knew it but I couldn't let him know that. So I named him Shiku, after the fox scientist from Sesame Street's Bangladesh version.

I was busy afterward with renovating my inner world, organizing my mind palace, and annexing Naruto's memory with mine. I visited Kurama from time to time. I told him about my predicament, about my past life and about the world and its history. He listened to my tale with concealed interest. I even arranged to show him any documentary that I could remember. Fortunately, I have very good memory, not eidetic but I could remember things for a long time.

After the renovation was done, I decided to review any info I could remember about Naruto.

Naruto Uzumaki, son of Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. At this point in time, elemental affinity wind, which his parents had in common as primary affinity. Beside wind, Kushina mastered water while Minato mastered fire and lightning and outside of elemental affinity they also had shadow style in common. So hopefully I will have an easy time mastering it. For chakra prowess, Naruto had high chakra reserve for his age thanks to Uzumaki genes. For the same reason, he had almost nonexistent chakra control. He was a universal chakra donor, could transfer chakra to anyone by making it compatible. For physical prowess, he had high longevity and healing factor. With this information, I made my immediate to-do list regarding shinobi training.

1\. Improve chakra control.

2\. Find someone who knows shadow clone. Bribe them to teach me the jutsu.

3\. Physical conditioning.

4\. Improve taijutsu.

5\. Learn few jutsus before graduation.

After making the list, I approached my chakra pool. It manifested as a lake, a large one at that. However the water didn't have its usual clarity. It was as if the water had limestone mixed in it. There were many channels that carried a lazy flow of water. Here I started working on my first task on the list, somewhat.

Since my chakra manifested as water, I tried water bending with it. Even though my chakra looked like water, it felt much heavier. I couldn't lift it more than a few inches. Granted I knew that water was heavy, especially if you have to carry or move more than 10 liters. I scooped up some water in my palm. Even though it was only few CC, it weighed (felt) almost 500 grams. So I concluded that my chakra was dense and heavy and thus naturally harder to control. When I brought this up with Kurama in my next meeting, he pointed out to me that since I just unlocked the pool, it would be easier to try to make it flow than lifting up. Giving him my thanks, I got to work to do just that. I concentrated and concentrated and concentrated some more. After what seemed like hours, I FINALLY made the water flow at slightly increased pace through the channels. I worked on increasing the flow all day, as there was no nighttime in there. With the increase of flow the channels became wider. After the channels turned into canals, I tried water bending. This time the water rose almost 2 feet, but it fell on the surface before I could make it move. So I started exercising to raising the water higher and higher. After I could make 10 feet high water pillar, I started to make it move. Nothing complex, just moving water in 10 feet high arches. After I could do it instantly, I started making waves though the canals. All the while I noticed that the water was getting clearer every day.

At this point, I started to become aware of my surrounding in real world. I could hear voices of the visitor. I could feel breeze coming through the window. And I could feel my heartbeat. I could feel the heat of sunlight on my skin. So now I could tell whether it was day or night.

The first few days were spent cataloguing voices and their owners. My daily visitors were a doctor and a nurse. From their tone, it seemed like they were professional. They didn't let the grudge they held against Kurama get the better of them. Maybe that's why Third Hokage put them in charge of my treatment. The old man visited in every few days. From his talk with the doc I put together ninja-medical reason for my state of health.

My condition was called Yin-Yang Imbalance. Normally chakra is consisting of 2 halves, the physical half Yang and the spiritual half Yin. Now these 2 halves aren't always equal. For example, a lazy intelligent person(Read Naras) will always have more spiritual energy than physical energy and non-intelligent glutton will have more physical energy(stored as fat) than spiritual energy. As long as one half didn't dwarf the other, there was no problem. But if something like this happens, then human body goes into unconscious state. It returns to normal when both halves' ratio becomes closer to 1:1. Right now my Yin-Yang ratio is 3.2:1. When I was hospitalized, it was 4.15:1. According to the doctor, right now my body is absorbing nutrients from IV like sponge to amass physical energy to obtain the right ratio as soon as possible. By his estimation it would take at least another 4 months give or take to achieve that, if my body doesn't hit a growth spurt. This bit of information gave me an idea to shorten the time I would have no choice but to stay at hospital as I have already stayed there for 3 weeks.

I told Kurama about my condition and asked him if he gave me some of his chakra would my body hit a growth spurt. He answered that I will have to know how to send chakra to every parts of my body at the same time for that. He also warned me that right now I could control very minute amount of his chakra. Not that he worded it like that, a lot of insults were used. So I started practicing sending chakra to my limbs.

Anyway, the doctor, nurse and the old man weren't the only visitors. Kiba, Shikamaru and Chouji would visit me every weekend. Kiba would tell me how everything was getting boring without my pranks. Shikamaru would say that I was lucky that I wouldn't have to go to the academy and sit through boring lectures. Chouji would usually bring a fruit basket and leave them in the fridge. The Ichirakus would also visit but considering that they have to look after their ramen stand, it wasn't very often.

And then there was Hinata. She would visit almost every day. She would also bring flower from time to time and place them in a vase. The normally shy girl would talk about her days, her little sister, her training, her clan's treatment to her and every little thing that she normally wouldn't have courage to tell me when I was awake.

One day, I think it was around midday, Hinata came to visit me. Even being in coma, I could feel her distraughtness, maybe having chakra has supercharged my empathy. When she started to speak, her voice confirmed it. Her broken voice told me that she was crying. I listened to her as she poured her heart. I heard about the harsh treatment she received at the hand of her clan but it was the first time the poor girl was humiliated, in front of her whole clan no less. I never cursed my inability to move as much as I did at the moment. In previous life, I listened to my friends' sorrow and offered words of comfort and hugs. But as I was right now, that was out of question. Then, she grabbed my hand, no doubt trying to find comfort in it. I was unable to give a squeeze, to let her know that I heard her loud and clear and I will help her through the rough patch, like I always did for my friends. The only thing I could move was my chakra. So I directed the flow to my hand and reach her with it. My chakra seeped out of my palm, through her skin and into her system. I felt her surprise and joy through our connection as she stopped crying. I felt glad that I was able to comfort her at a situation like this.

That night I moved on to make my chakra flow out of my chakra pathway and into my body parts all at once. It took me a week of constant practice for me to do it decently. So that night I asked Kurama to lend me an amount of chakra that would be easy for me to control. Red chakra flooded the area around the seal. I tried to scoop up a palmful of red liquid and it felt like I was trying to lift burning hot liquid iron. After the immediate area around the seal was covered with his chakra, I told Kurama to stop sending it anymore. Next 30 minutes were agonizing as the red hot chakra flowed through my system and every cell in my body received a portion of it. Next day the doctor noted that my height has increased by 3 inches and my bone density and muscle mass has also increased. Old man Sarutobi visited that day to check up on my health. The nurse told him that according to the doctor, my Yin-Yang ratio had increased to 1.9:1. At this rate I was expected to wake up in about a month.

I tried the same thing twice more, with less chakra. In the process, the ratio increased to 1.3:1 and my recovery day decreased to just a week. Now the only thing that left for me to do is to try regaining movement. The task was exhausting. Even after 3 days of trying I could barely move my finger few millimeters. And then an unexpected event happened.

That night I was talking to Kurama, means that I was doing the talking while he was adding his 2 cents on the moments he felt necessary when he suddenly said that there was an intruder in my inner world. That made me worried. Someone who can enter other people's inner world, that meant that there was a big chance that the person who entered is a Yamanaka. Members of that clan were noted to know jutsus that let them see other peoples memory. That was troubling. Sure I wasn't someone who would keep things secret from his friends, but strangers are a different subject. So I made my way to my inner world. I found the intruder in my mind palace. Being in my mind, his thoughts were audible to me. I confronted him at the monoliths that I made as my homage to some of the great houses of Westeros from Game of Thrones. I was amused to see him shiver when he examined the one dedicated to House Bolton. When I made my presence known to him he was startled. Not many words were exchanged. I willed chains to shoot from the Bolton monolith and hung him exactly like the flayed man on Bolton sigil. Now he was terrified. His frantic thought gave me all the information I needed. The guy, Fu, was a root member recruited from Yamanaka clan. He was assigned to keep watch on me by Danzo. Danzo knew what Yin-Yang Imbalance due to increase of spiritual energy entailed. So he tasked Fu to enter my mind to see what changed. As I got the info, now I have to do something to the guy so that he doesn't try this stunt again. So I decided to do something that I discussed with Kurama the day before. I placed my palm on his forehead, willed my chakra to flow from my palm to his head. When I felt my chakra grabbing his, with a pull I started taking his chakra from him. I already felt both of his palms on both sides of my head, so I did the same through our physical contact. It took only 15 seconds for Fu's chakra reserve to hit the bottom. His avatar in my mind fell unconscious and then disappeared. Then I had another idea when I remembered how Orochimaru gathered intel from Kabuto when he reclaimed his chakra from him. However since Fu didn't have any of my chakra, I had to add my chakra charity technique in the mix. I pushed my chakra through one of his palm and absorbed it through the other. Within couple of hours, I had all the information I needed. Information about Danzo's bases and Fu's jutsu arsenal were most valuable among them. After the process was done, I dried his system of any chakra that I could. I left bare minimum needed for him to live. The nurse found him in her morning round. She notified the doctor who in turn notified the ANBU.

After continuous trial, I managed to wake up from my coma around 11 in the morning. The first thing I felt when I woke up was thirst and hunger. Thankfully there was a fridge in the chamber that I knew was stocked with Chouji's fruit baskets. With painfully slow motion I unhooked the IV and made my way to the fridge in what felt like hours. I took out a bottle of water first. After quenching my thirst, I started eating the fruits. By the time my hunger was sated, the fridge was almost empty.

The doctor came to check on me when I was putting on my clothes. He did all kinds of checkups and cleared me out for leaving. The rest of the day was spent trying the jutsus gathered from Fu's memory. For a 14 years old teenager, his jutsu arsenal was nothing to scoff at, basic academy jutsus, various water and earth style jutsus, several Yamanaka secret jutsus and sensory ninjutsu. The first jutsu I tried was transformation jutsu. It took me over 2 hours to pull out a perfect transformation. This jutsu allowed me to avoid the made up taxes the shopkeepers kept charging Naruto.

I spent the rest of the day exploring the village in my transformation. My first impression of Leaf village was, empty. Don't get me wrong, there were people in the streets and shops. But when you live in Dhaka, the only thing you get to see in streets are people's heads. Not surprising since the city has population density of only 3 people short of 47,000 per square kilometer.

Good thing that Naruto received his orphan stipend the day before I was reincarnated in him. I spent some of it to buy treats that I thought my potential friends will like. After the treats were bought, I searched for them. Shikamaru and Chouji were easy to find. They were passing their time in park, Chouji munching on his chips and Shikamaru watching the clouds floating by. I knew that Chouji liked chips but I didn't know about Shikamaru. So I bought chips for both of them. They told me where to find Kiba and Hinata when I asked. Check Wikipedia if you can't believe it.

When I reached Inuzuka compound, Kiba was taking Akamaru for a walk. Both master and his pet appreciated the steaks I brought for them. Kiba challenged me to a race but I declined saying that my doctors told me to take it easy for a few days.

Entering the next destination was a bit harder as the guards at the Hyuga compound's entrance didn't want to let me in without any appointment. I told them to bring me paper and pen so that I can write a request on the spot and they can bring it to the clan head. The guards clearly didn't expect me to answer their refusal that way. So; one of them went inside to inform Hinata's dad about my request. Few minutes later, I was let inside the compound. The guard who went inside earlier guided to the clan head's office. Hiashi Hyuga asked me a few question about why I came to his compound. He was surprised to hear that I came to meet Hinata. I told him that I brought her a present for visiting me in the hospital. He was judging me the whole time, like when a CEO interviews an employee to see if he is going to waste his money employing him. After that he instructed a Hyuga maid to take me to where Hinata was. She was in the garden tending to the plants. When she noticed me, she turned a bit red. I was trying my hardest to stop myself from pinching her cheeks at the scene and say 'OWWWWWWW'. She greeted me with a stutter. I returned her greeting and gave the present I brought for her, a bag of cinnamon bun. I saw her struggle to not give into her urge and start devouring the treats right then and there, she was still a kid after all. We spent the next hour talking and eating the treats. I was invited to have dinner with her family.

Dinner with Hinata's family was a quiet affair, even Hinata's little sister was quiet and she is just 3 years old. I fumbled few times with chopstick, understandable as I never ate with that. After dinner, I thanked Hiashi for inviting me to dinner and said my goodbye.

My time spent with my new classmates over the week showed them to be the understanding type. So I decided to take a leap of faith and divulge them about my secret, sometime in the near future. I know they will become close friends to me eventually but the sooner they know about my status the better. If some of them hold hostility towards me because of Kurama, after all I doubt none of their clan members died _that_ day; then they will have more time to reconcile with the fact that I am merely a sack containing a beast rather than the beast itself.

"Hey kid!" A loud voice broke me out of my musing when I reached the hallway leading to my apartment. I looked over the owner of the voice.

The person was a male, almost a giant with his large stature. The guy had long white hair that was tied in a ponytail. He was also carrying a big scroll on his back. His dress was red and green in color and he wore a wooden sandal that was called 'kharam' in Bangla. And the guy was standing on my doorway. ' _Well damn_ ,' I thought as I put together the man's identity. ' _Looks like my godfather has come to meet me early._ '

"Hey, some old guy I never met before." I replied before the clone I left in my apartment could.

* * *

OxoxO

* * *

AN: It took me a while to finalize this chapter. This is the first time I wrote from first person POV. So let me know how I did.


	3. The Godfather

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.**

OxoxO

Jiraiya whipped to his head to look at me. Then he turned his head to my clone standing in the doorway. Then he looked at me again. Then he asked, "You know how to make clone?"

"Yes I know how to make water clone." I answered as I entered my apartment. Jiraiya gave a whistle at my answer and followed me inside. My clone closed the door behind us and made his way to my bedroom, taking the book he was reading from the dining table.

"Nice." He said. "So how long have you been using the jutsu?" Jiraiya asked as he looked around my living room.

"Since yesterday." I replied as I put the snacks inside the fridge.

My living room was modeled after living room of Roxanne Ritchi from Megamind. Papers were hanging from the ceiling and each of them had a quote from a famous person written on them. On the walls there were posters of Game of Thrones that I drew in last 2 days. Jiraiya's gaze lingered on Bolton poster for a moment longer. I could see uneasiness flashing on his face for a moment. Understandable, as no one would expect to see poster of a flayed man in someone's living room unless he was a nutcase or medical study enthusiastic. It was gone as soon as it came. I took a soda from the bag and threw another one at him. Jiraiya caught the bottle even without looking.

"You have a lot of wise words written on them." He said as he took a sip from his bottle. "So tell me how can you be foolish enough to let a stranger like me enter your apartment?"

"You are an old guy," Jiraiya took offence in my blunt reply. "and you are a shinobi. In this line of work no one gets to your age without being good. Even if I tried to stop you, you could've entered my place anyway. So why not bypass all the hassle and let you say your piece."

"I could be an enemy ninja trying to kidnap you."

"I doubt I have much value to some outsiders. You wouldn't any money from my family, or a bloodline for your village. The only thing you will get from me is the skill of a prankster and no village appreciates needing to repaint the walls of their important buildings more than once a week." Jiraiya was surprised and amused at my response.

"I could be an imposter."

"It would make more sense to impersonate one of my classmates or a ramen delivery guy if that was the case."

"Ha ha ha! I admit you are good for a kid your age."

"Hey boss," I looked over at the clone that called to me. "all of us are done studying."

"That's good." I replied as I made my way to my bedroom where 4 more of my clones were done studying.

"You use water clones for studying?"

"I do." I replied in short answer.

"But water clones doesn't have memory relay function." Jiraiya stated.

"No they don't." I replied to his inquiry as I instructed the clones to move to bathroom.

"Then how is them studying going to help you? It's going to be a waste of time when the clones are destroyed."

"That's true." I replied to as I placed my hand on the first clone's back. I absorbed the chakra inhabiting the clone's body in a matter of moment and water that made up his body spilled all around the bathroom floor. The other clones soon followed the same fate.

"Then how do you get their memory?"

"My water clones are made of my chakra. So when I reclaim my chakra from them, their memory comes with it." I said as I turned around to face him. "If a water clone is destroyed before I can absorb the chakra, then the memory is lost and the time wasted. For that this jutsu is good for studying in safe environment but not suitable for any kind of information gathering or getting information about fighting style in a combat."

A flash of realization struck Jiraiya. He looked at me with suspicion. "By any chance," he started saying slowly, "can you gather information from other people if you absorb chakra from them?"

"No I can't. This technique only works with my clones." I answered straightly. A partial truth wouldn't hurt. 'Besides t _he only person I used this trick on is Fu. And ANBU took …_ ' I released a chuckle at my realization. I looked Jiraiya directly in the eye. "You have somehow seen Fu's memory, haven't you? And now you are thinking if I am going to do this to other ninja of this village." Many people called me blunt, some even admonished me. I hardly cared. I know it might be counter-productive some times, but in my opinion, it's better to confess the truth than to face the consequence after the truth comes out in the open regardless. If I was put in Naruto's place from the get-go, I wouldn't have to worry about any of that. People would've got accustomed to my behavior by now. But Naruto being an attention-loving kid and me being the opposite wasn't something that wasn't going to clash anytime soon. And above all, my cat is peeking out of the bag now.

"How did you get that idea?" Jiraiya was surprised at my question.

"Come now, he isn't the only Yamanaka in the village. One of them is my classmate after all." I answered while chuckling. "So," I started as my chuckling came to a stop. "I take the old man is worried from what he saw. And so he sent you to test me, to see if I'm the Naruto he knew me to be."

"Can you blame him after what he saw…?" Jiraiya left his question unfinished as he looked at the Bolton poster.

"I understand the old man's worry. He cared for Naruto in some way. So he is definitely going to be worried. I will answer to any of question with truth. But, before that let me ask a question first. Who do you think I am?"

"When I saw that Root agent's memory, I thought somehow you have time-traveled from the future." ' _Huh, since I know many things that are going to happen in the future I can go with that story._ ' "However you mentioned Naruto in third person just now. So I take it you are not Naruto at all."

"You would be right. Even though I have seen Naruto's memory from first person point of view and I know more things about Naruto than he himself did, I am not Naruto the prankster or Naruto the orphan child." Jiraiya grimaced his face at mention of Naruto's status as orphan. And now the cat was out of the bag.

"By any chance, are you the Nine Tails?" Jiraiya asked with trepidation.

"Do you think I would've allowed the village to stand if I was?"

Jiraiya grunted at my reply. He closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath that I couldn't hear. When he opened his eyes, the steely look he gave was enough to leave paralyzed. "So you are a body snatcher then. Tell me, who are you? Why did you target Naruto? Is it to fulfill some perverse dream to become immortal? Tell me what your reason to take Naruto's body was?" Jiraiya started to leak killing intent at this point. Coupled with already being paralyzed by his hardened gaze, his killing intent was suffocating me now.

"Why do you care so much about Naruto anyway? Very few people give a damn about his life and I have never seen you among them." My question angered Jiraiya further.

"You want to know why? Then listen. A few years back, sensei told me about Naruto. He said that he had a great potential to become Hokage. He said that he tried to make his life easier but he wasn't always successful. So to make up to all his mistakes and shortcomings regarding Naruto, he asked me to take him on as a student when he is ready. And I accepted. Over the years sensei kept me in touch about his progress." ' _So he isn't willing to divulge his relation to Naruto right now. Oh well, it's not a loss._ ' "Sensei sent me many letters telling me about Naruto's character and his progress. He is a prankster but he is a good, pure hearted boy and I was waiting for the day to take him on as a student. But after meeting you I have no doubt that you are not the real Naruto. And now I will not get the chance to meet him. And it's all because of you!"

The killing intent made me forget to breathe when the unparalleled fear washed over me. ' _Think! Think!_ ' I mentally screamed to myself to do something, anything to break the spell of dread. I was reminded the first time I felt the kind of terror and helplessness when I experienced sleep paralysis once. I willed my finger, any part of my body that I could feel, to move according my command but I wasn't much successful in my endeavor. So I started to bring my anger to the surface to match Jiraiya's KI by remembering all the memories Naruto has repressed over the years. And slowly it started to work. All the neglect, hatred and scorn that Naruto has faced at the hand of the villager replayed in my mind over and over. The anger was enough to let Kurama pour a bit his chakra into my system. That did the trick. Jiraiya was unaffected by the anger I projected but when it was amplified by Kurama's bloodlust, he flinched in his seat. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and exhaled the anger and hatred out of me. I repeated the process few more times. I opened my eyes and looked directly in his eyes. I could only guess how my _look_ would've been felt. Several times my friends said that my eyes were cold, not from anger but from lack of warmth and interest. My best friend even once said that even though I lough from my heart it seldom reaches my eyes. I see Jiraiya become calm and his posture become rigid, ready to attack in moment's notice. I closed my eyes and leant back in my chair to think about my response. I opened my eyes again and started, "It was my first experience with killing intent." I took another sip from the bottle and stood up. I could feel Jiraiya's eyes following my every movement. "You are blaming me for your loss of chance to meet a potential student who had untapped potential. Just because I reawakened and took Naruto's place before you? You could've come to meet Naruto days, weeks, months, even weeks prior and beat to the punch. But you didn't and now you are bitching about it. Where were you when Naruto needed a guardian? Where were you when he woke up in the middle of the night and prayed to the god to send someone, anyone to hold him, comfort him and lull him to sleep? Where were you when whispers of the villagers grew so loud that he had to flee and take sanctuary in the forest away from the very village he protects with his every breath? Where were you then when he needed someone to show him that he had a family left, dear godfather?"

"H-How?" Jiraiya was shaken from my accusations and my last question made him suspicious. "How did you know that I was his godfather?"

"How do you think? Naruto's parents left their chakra imprints in the seal so that they can meet Naruto in the future. When I reawakened in Naruto, it triggered that particular function of the seal. When I was in comatose they accessed my memory and awakened me in my inner world. After that, you could say that they somewhat adopted me. That's when they mentioned you. Afterward they returned to their own place in the seal."

"What do you mean by 'they adopted you'?"

"They accepted that I have taken their son's place, asked me to make the name of their son famous and gave me a long life in my second chance." I replied, the rage I felt inside me earlier slowly dissipating. I stood up from my seat and told him. "If you have something to record the next part of our conversation, then prepare it. I know the old man has his own means to watch from his office and I doubt he isn't doing just that right now. But it wouldn't hurt to have an extra record to match his." I stopped before the door to my bedroom. "And godfather dear, if you want nothing to do with me after today I won't hold it against you. After all, I am not the Naruto you wished to fulfill that role to."

"Where are you going?"

"I don't plan on escaping."

"You don't beat around the bush, do you?"

"Unless I feel it's funny, I don't like wasting my breath. Call me when your preparation is done." I answered back as I went to the balcony.

I sat on stool and leant my back against the wall. Closing my eyes, I let all the hustle and bustle invade my hearing. There wasn't any flower tree nearby to breathe in any nice smell. That has to be changed. Soon the tenseness from my earlier confrontation with the toad Sannin left my body and I felt myself lost in a trance where I could hear everything from my heartbeat to man hitting on a nail in probably 100 meters distance. But more importantly I could feel the silence that followed every sound and the calm it brought. All traces of rage and anger from inside me left little by little with this feeling. Few minutes later Jiraiya's presence brushed against my sense. I waited for him to call. He didn't. He just stood there.

"Watching a boy sleeping for this long makes you a creep." I replied couple of minutes later as I opened my eyes.

"You looked so peaceful I didn't want to disrupt."

"That line would've worked better on some love-struck girl." I stood up from my position and walked inside. "And you sound like a pedo for saying that."

"Oi," Jiraiya sounded really offended. I turned around to see what kind of look was on his face as he retorts to my comment. "Let me tell you something you don't know, I am a super pervert but I am NOT a pedophile."

I stared at him for a moment, and then I turned back and said, "That's good to know."

"You aren't grossed out at the fact that I'm a pervert?" disbelief was evident in his voice. More than likely he didn't expect someone to accept his declaration of being a pervert this well.

"The only kinds of perverts I dislike are those who can't think without their pointy spear." I took my previous seat and Jiraiya his. There was a scroll laid out on the table. The scroll had a complex seal scrawled on it. Smell of ink was still fresh, so Jiraiya made it in just minutes. ' _That speaks of his skill in sealing jutsu._ ' There was also a stopwatch beside it. ' _So there is a time limit he can record._ ' I looked at Jiraiya and continued with my answer. "If you couldn't control your perversion, you would've died in a brothel long time ago. So no I don't have anything against your perversion."

Jiraiya looked like he was going to cry. What he could be thinking was anyone's guess. Then he schooled his feature. "Kid, if I wasn't wary of your character I would've made you my student right this instant." He took the stopwatch in his left hand and put his right index finger over the seal matrix. In an instant the seal glowed with light and he retracted his finger. "So let's remedy that. If I like what I hear, I might teach you something."

"Good to know there is reward for doing well in the interrogation." Jiraiya _almost_ scoffed at my response.

"Now my first question is, who are you?"

"I am someone who has drawn his last breath once, someone who has already said his last prayer."

"Did you take over Naruto's body to prolong your life?"

"That wasn't my intention at all. I said my last words, I closed my eyes and I accepted my death. When I felt my heartbeat again, I hoped to find myself in a hospital bed, surrounded by my friends and family and months later to go back to my life filled with all kind of joy, heartbreak, happiness and drama. Instead I find myself in the body of an 8 years old boy, in an unknown town, surrounded by people speaking a language that I barely know."

"How did you die?"

"My siblings were about to be run over by a 5-tonne vehicle running at over 80 miles per hour. They froze, I jumped. I pushed them out of the way but lost my balance when I tried to get myself to move out of the way. So I fell on the road and the vehicle ran over my chest. I died from crushed ribs, punctured lungs and internal bleeding."

Jiraiya looked at my face searching for any sign of lie. I held eye contact with him for half a minute. Jiraiya broke the staring contest with a sigh and took a sip from his soda bottle. He closed his eyes and processed what I said. Opening his eyes he took another sip.

"How can you describe your death so casually?"

"Every living thing will taste death. There is no way to avoid it. It may be in a warzone or in your own bed, at your enemy's hand or at your lover's embrace, one way or another, death _will_ claim you. It's an inevitable part of our lives. There is no need to fear death, no need to be disgusted by it. There is no need to be horrified about it. The reason I can talk so casually about it is because, I once prayed that my death be a sudden one. I didn't want to wait for death to come; lying in a bed, knowing it would be any day now. And that's how I died."

"Can you tell me something about your previous life?"

"I was an orphan. I lost my mother before I was 3. My father died when I was 6. My grandparents took care of me after my mother's death. My grandma died when I was 8. My grandpa felt he didn't have much time left. So he contacted my mother's sister. She loved my mother, so she and her husband adopted me. My grandpa passed away only a few months later. My aunt taught me many things. She taught me how to be responsible, she taught me how to be a big brother and more importantly, she taught me how to let go of the pain that accumulated inside me in my early childhood." Silence permeated between us for a full minute. I am sure Jiraiya didn't think my life would be tragic. The silence was broken when he cleared his throat.

"Can you tell me about the country you lived?"

"I lived in a country named Bangladesh. It was a very beautiful country with many names. Our poets revered our country as nature's most beloved child. Our country was called Land of Rivers for over a hundred rivers running throughout the land like a net. She was also called the Land of Six Seasons because of obvious reason. Our country was rich with fertile soil and because of that she was envy of many foreign invaders in the past. And as for the people there, they had black hair and brown eyes. People who didn't have black hair are either old, albino, foreigners or dyed their hair. Also you can count the people you met in your life who didn't have brown eyes with your fingers and you wouldn't need all 10 of them."

Jiraiya tapped his chin with a thoughtful look on his face. "I don't remember any country matching your description."

"Not surprising. As it's more than likely I came from a different planet or a different universe."

"Hold on," Jiraiya stopped me before I could continue any further. "What do you mean by different planet or different universe?"

"Unless human race went through a great extinction because their stupidity has caught up to them and the survivors evolved to gain the ability to use the energy called chakra in so many ways over next million years after my death, I am either in a different planet where human race evolved differently or in a different universe altogether."

Jiraiya was truly stunned at this. He blinked owlishly few times then brought his palm over his forehead to massage it. That was probably too much for the poor guy. He shot me a disbelieving look and said, "You expect me to believe all that nonsense?"

"You _will_ after you see my memories."

"And end up like that Root agent?"

"He entered my inner world uninvited, and he didn't do it with gramp's permission. What do you expect me to do? Thank him for coming 'cause I was lonely?"

"You trust sensei?"

"Naruto trusted him, so I'm giving him the benefit of doubt."

"What about the people who accepted Naruto? And the rest of the villagers?"

"For the people who accepted Naruto, I will explain my situation to them sometime soon. If they accept me then that's good. As for the rest of the villagers, they lost something the day I took Naruto's place." I smiled a smile full of pity. Jiraiya was looking at me very carefully. I am sure he wasn't expecting something positive. "They lost their chance to earn Naruto's forgiveness."

"You aren't going to kill them are you?"

"Why would I do that?" Jiraiya felt relived at my answer. "If I just kill them, how am I going to see them regret their action knowing that I am not going to forgive them?"

"Even when they ask sincerely?"

"I myself was an orphan. So I know what an orphan wants the most. And I know how people _should not_ treat a child, especially an orphan. What would you do if your own child was treated this way?" guilt crossed Jiraiya's face. "Anyway, the reason I won't forgive them is because I don't have the right to forgive them. I can't forgive the crimes they committed against Naruto. As for the crimes they are going to commit against me in the future, my forgiveness isn't cheap. I won't forgive someone just because they let some winds out of their mouth."

Jiraiya let out a sigh. "I guess I should've expected that. Now that I think about it, sometimes I wondered how Naruto was sane. Anyway, was your culture different than ours?"

"That goes without a saying." Jiraiya was expecting me to elaborate. I stood up and went over to fridge. "As for the proof of different culture…" I brought out a container out of the fridge and placed it in front of him.

"What's this?" he looked at the container wearily.

"It's a sweet dairy product called Doi or Dohi. I can't guarantee its taste since it's the first time I made it. If you are not lactose intolerant, it's a great food for you." Jiraiya still looked at me with suspicion. "Fine. Take the container, run tests on it, and then eat it."

"Okay." Jiraiya took the container and sealed it in a storage scroll. "My next question, if you are the one in charge now, what happened to real Naruto?" His face conveyed concern and guilt; no doubt he was feeling it was too late to fulfill his duty as a godfather.

"By the time I woke up in my inner world, my astral body has already started assuming his features. I found his memories in my inner world but not his thoughts and emotions. So I merged them in timeframe in between my death and reawakening. After that I gained the appearance that you might've seen in Fu's memory."

"Is there any chance that he will come back?"

I let out a long sigh at this. "More than likely, never." A heavy silence followed my reply. Understandable as it means Naruto has effectively died and my spirit has taken the full possession of his body.

"What will you do now then?"

I closed my eyes and thought about my foster family, especially my step-siblings. "I told my siblings to live for me." I opened my eyes voiced my intention. "I am going to do the same. My second chance might be undesired, it's not unwelcome. This time I plan on living more than 19 years."

"Do you want to become a shinobi?"

"Do I have any alternatives?"

"That's true." Jiraiya sighed. "Will you pursue Naruto's dream of becoming Hokage?"

"No." Jiraiya was surprised at my straight answer. After all who doesn't want to be leader of a village and have the biggest position of power? So I decided to explain further. "I never liked being in limelight. Don't get me wrong, I like to get attention. Just only from the people that are close to me." I took a deep breath. "Besides, Naruto dreamt to become Hokage so that he can earn acknowledgement from people who hate him. I don't see any point pursuing that goal since the villagers already acknowledged him, just not as a human being."

"How much do you know about Naruto's….. condition?" he hesitated to mention the next part.

"I was in coma for two months. Who do you think kept me company?"

"Assuming you talked with him; did you make some kind deal with him?"

"I offered him friendship."

"You offered him WHAT!?"

"Friendship." I replied calmly drinking another sip of soda.

"Why?" Jiraiya's voice stern at the question.

"The best way to subdue an enemy is to turn him into a loyal friend."

"And what did you ask in return?"

"I can't ask someone who I just met to lend me something before getting to know him better."

"Why do you want to get to know him? There are ways to utilize tailed beasts' power using seals y'know."

"I want to get to know him because contrary to popular belief, he isn't a mindless creature. He has intelligence and eons of experience and I value that more than his power." Jiraiya nodded in agreement at that.

"I still have questions that I want answers to. But," Jiraiya retracted the scroll and rolled it. "since you have offered to show your memories, I will wait." He placed the scroll in his pocket. "Now we can move on lighter subject." Jiraiya grinned and rubbed his hands together. "So tell me what kind of girls do you like?"

' _I should've seen that coming._ ' I let out a big sigh. More than likely it was his way of testing someone's mental faculty.

OxoxO

senjumenma: whatever happens to Danzo, I promise it will be interesting. You might have to wait a bit long to see it.

.mahdee: I hope you liked the slight verbal beatdown my SI did. I am not really good with bashing though. So if you were hoping for more, sorry in advance.


	4. The Pervert's Decision

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.**

OxoxO

The Hokage's office was occupied by the Third Hokage, his student Jiraiya and the head of T&I Department, Inoichi Yamanaka. The room was secured with silencing seal so that no one can eavesdrop on them. Although if someone could manage to somehow listen to what they were saying; at the moment, they would hear nothing but silence. Now why they were silent?

It's because they just finished hearing the record Jiraiya brought with him, his conversation with one Naruto Uzumaki, or rather the one who has taken the place of Naruto Uzumaki. Some of his answers made the other 2 occupants of the room wander, if it wasn't simply Naruto who finally snapped. Even though the boy wasn't informed about his status as a jinchuriki, the animosity the villagers showed him was enough to drive an 8 years old child insane. The thought was terrifying to Hiruzen, as his agent has informed him about the mental state of Sand's jinchuriki. Truthfully Hiruzen had met the boy regularly to show the villagers that he was important to him, which he was; both as a military asset and surrogate grandson. But now he was lost about what to do with the change.

"Jiraiya," he broke the silence after a long moment of silence he spent smoking his pipe. "you talked with the boy personally. What's your opinion about him?"

"The boy is honest. Everything he said, he told the truth. I can say there are things he doesn't want us to find out. He did mention human race going extinct for their mistake. And with how easily he accepted death as part of life at the age of 19, I'm guessing he lived through the aftermath of an apocalyptic war. The he talked, even though he wants to live longer than before, he isn't afraid of dying a second time."

"Inoichi, what's your evaluation of the boy?"

"Lord Hokage, he is a 19 years old boy. He has his mentality fully developed, so trying to change his mind will be futile. At the moment, any steps we take to change it; he will take that as brainwashing and in best case scenario he will just ignore it. So I think our course of action should be to just observe and get a full picture of his character. And he is willing to trust the people who Naruto trusted. The list of those people is not very long. So my suggestion is to not break his trust. Naruto never remembered or maybe never thought about people's slight against him but he said that his forgiveness isn't cheap. Since he is being honest, I think we should do the same in any of our action regarding him. Then the matter of his willingness to sacrifice his life to save his siblings. That's a sign of selflessness. If our shinobi can show him that they are willing to put aside their hatred, I think he will be willing to do his best to protect them. There are many things we don't know about this new person. Also he offered to see his memories, which means he is sure that either he doesn't have anything to hide or his memories are too gruesome for others to watch. Keep in mind, he said that he lived in a different world and was brought up in a different culture. He is sure to have different opinion about matters and different values to that of our own which is undoubtedly an important part of his character."

"He has met with his well-wishers shortly after he woke up, on his own volition. But he hasn't come to meet me yet." Hiruzen took a long drag of his pipe before continuing. "I feel as if I would have to start all over again to have a relationship with him."

"On the bright side," Jiraiya had a stupid grin on his face, "you wouldn't have to give him _the Talk_."

Hiruzen almost coughed smoke at this piece of information. Even though he was a closet pervert himself, he dreaded any moments when he needed to give someone _the Talk_. ' _Thank the gods for the small mercy; giving_ the Talk _to anyone is a nightmare._ '

The blonde occupant in the room was concerned at this. "Lord Jiraiya," Inoichi asked with anticipation. He had to know. To be relieved of the duty of giving _the Talk_ was something every parent would be happy for. But coming from Jiraiya, it gave him a bad feeling. After all, his baby daughter was the boy's classmate. "is the new Naruto a womanizer?"

Jiraiya let out a hearty laugh at that. "Don't worry about it Inoichi. He made it clear that he isn't the skirt-chasing type. Apparently he asked 3 girls out on a date in his past life and they, in his words, friend-zoned him saying that he gave off nothing but friendly vibe to them. And he wouldn't go after a girl just because she has a pretty face."

"Jiraiya, you sound pleased with the boy."

"Sensei, the boy isn't a prideful brat. I could say many people would take being reincarnated as sign of divinity. He didn't. He isn't a genius, he admitted as much. He also said he isn't the type to rush into learning something new. What's more, he said that the only kinds of perverts he doesn't like are those who can't think without their pointy spear." Jiraiya had a big pleased grin on his face. "If he was reborn as Naruto from the start, I would've said that he was born to be my student."

"Do you plan on taking him as a student?"

"Sensei, the boy had passed one life in hardship before. From the way he talks, he knows what wars and conflicts can bring to mankind. You knew what kind of students I like to take." Jiraiya's voice conveyed seriousness that was opposite to his previous statement. "The boy wants to live more than he lived in his previous life. I wish to help him, to make him strong so that he can live as Naruto and fulfill any dream he would have along the way." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I won't be able to teach him on a regular basis, but I will check on him from time to time. Sensei, I want you to appoint a jonin as his a private tutor. Don't worry about the expenses, I will cover it."

"Are you sure? Appointing a jonin as private tutor is going to be costly."

"Money isn't going to be a problem. My books sell pretty well all over the Elemental Nations you know. Plus Naruto already gave me an idea for a new book. I have a feeling it's going to be a bestseller. I decided to name it Make Out Shapeshifter."

Hiruzen and Inoichi face-palmed at his declaration. Did the boy win him over with _just_ that one idea for his new book? While Hiruzen was slightly appreciating the contribution the boy has done to the series, Inoichi resolved to warn his daughter to keep her distance from the boy, and it was not because of the Nine Tails. Jiraiya said that the boy wouldn't go after a girl just because she has a pretty face. That means he will be definitely coming after his daughter. Why? Because his daughter had more than just a pretty face; she was the most perfect girl any boy could dream for. And he wouldn't allow that boy with perverted fantasies that Jiraiya is going to write in his smuts to lay his fingers on his princess. Not on his watch, believe it.

OxoxO

Next day, Jiraiya has gone to check up on Naruto. He went to his apartment at the morning. He planned on teaching the boy something before the tutor his sensei is going to hire take over. So, he checked on him from the building next to Naruto's residence. The boy had friends over his place. There were 5 of them including _Naruto_. That reminded him, he forgot yesterday to ask the boy what his name was.

' _I guess that wouldn't matter now anyway._ ' He thought to himself. ' _He took Naruto's place and Naruto's name. That's what he would be known as._ '

He took out his binocular to see what they were doing. They were sitting around the dining table, 4 males and 1 female. Judging by their appearance all of them belonged to a clan. Constant eating gave the chubby boy away as an Akimichi. Pineapple shaped hair and lazy body language gave away the one beside him as a Nara. Red triangle tattooed on his cheeks marked the third male as an Inuzuka. And the pale eye distinguished the sole female as a Hyuga. All of them had stacks of candies in front of them, though the one in front of Naruto was higher than everyone else's. All of them had card—

"Wait; don't tell me they are gambling …..with candies." Jiraiya watched flabbergasted as the children who were too young ('not Naruto.' He reminded himself.) to gamble, playing poker with candies. Although he did feel proud as he saw his supposed godson winning round after round. Finally after what seemed to be an hour and a half, all other occupants of the table lost every single one of their candies. Naruto shared his pile of candies to his friends regardless. There was a smile on his face that told how happy he was at the moment. He offered them to have lunch in his place which they accepted. The foods he served his friends were a bit unusual to say the least. A dish of rice with meats mixed in, a drink that looked like it was made from milk and as dessert he served them Doi. His friends looked skeptical at first, but after the Akimichi boy took the first bite and gave his enthusiastic praise, others dug in as well. No doubt the meals were made with recipe from _before_ , as he has never seen any of those dishes anywhere he travelled and he travelled to a LOT of places. His friends liked the foods, specially the Akimichi. When they said their goodbye, Naruto offered everyone a container of doi with the Akimichi's being the biggest. Although the girl stayed a bit longer to help Naruto clean up his kitchen and dishes. Eventually she too left.

Jiraiya moved from his place when he saw Naruto starting to set his own plates. With a quick Body Flicker, he was outside Naruto's window.

"You know, people put doors in their places for a reason." Naruto said. That was surprising. He didn't make any noise. How could the brat know about his presence? He was planning on taking a seat on the dining table and start sampling the foods. But now the surprise was ruined. So he jumped into the room and took a seat at the dining table. He examined the dishes up close. The dishes were unusual but they looked tasty nonetheless. He was sure if the boy wanted, he could open up a restaurant in near future.

"I didn't make any noise." He left the unasked question hang in the air. He took a spoonful of doi from its bowl. ' _Hmm, the taste is different from the one I took._ '

"I practice the sensing technique I salvaged from Fu every 30 minutes. I know your chakra signature from yesterday and you were on the building across this one for hours." So that's how. Not bad for someone who didn't have chakra _before_.

"You know, for a newbie you are doing pretty good. You are getting the hang of chakra pretty quickly." It was terrifying. Unlike Naruto, this boy had enough brains to understand the concept and patience to take the time to implement it. He checked out Naruto's academic records. While Naruto did pretty good at practical subjects, like stealth and trap making he didn't do very well in theory. But after he rejoined the academy his scores in recent monthly test has shot up, especially math and history. The only subject he was getting problem at was Language and Literature. That was understandable as he mentioned he didn't speak their native language. The teacher wrote that he heard him cursing the one responsible for inventing kanji for inventing such complex writing system more than once.

"When you are in Rome, act like a roman." Where the hell is Rome? "There were many novels, literatures, movies and TV series written and filmed about magical energy and whatnot. Those fantasy novels were pretty popular specially the ones that tried to give the readers feel about how those energies would feel like. I myself once tried hydrokinesis following the instructions from those." Naruto said as he washed his hand in sink and took his seat. "So when I learned I am in a somewhat a fantasy universe and have the magical energy, I tried to feel what I didn't before. From there, I am going with my knowledge from those literatures. I am trying to adapt to this whole new world as fast as I can. It helps that I acquired the much needed knowledge from someone." He served himself the dish of rice with meat mixed in and started eating.

"You are not going to eat with chopstick or spoon?" Jiraiya couldn't help but ask. The boy was eating with his right hand. Sure the rice would be hard to eat with chopstick as it wasn't sticky but he saw his friends eating it with spoons.

"Chopstick weren't part of my culture." Ah yes, cultural difference. That actually made sense. Still it was hard to believe that people would eat without chopstick. "Unless someone was heat sensitive, we would eat rice with our hands."

"How do you know about using chopstick then? From Naruto's memory?"

"There were lands far, far away that had culture similar to this place." That's interesting. Does that mean there was a country out there that has culture similar to his? "Anyway, I'm sure you talked to the old man. Am I going to be exorcised soon?"

Jiraiya frowned at the boy's attempted humor. "You are not going to be exorcised. The old man agreed to that last night. So you are going to live a long life."

"What else was decided?" Jiraiya looked at him incredulously. "Surely, my exorcism couldn't be the only thing that you discussed."

Jiraiya exhaled at the boy's blunt statement. "I have decided to take you on as my apprentice. I will teach you full time after a few years. In the meantime, sensei has agreed to provide a tutor for you. He will meet you few days later."

"And that's not going to cost me anything?"

"Don't worry about that, kid. Let me worry about the cost." He took the last spoonful of doi in his mouth and stood up to look at the papers hanging from the ceiling. "Finish your food. We have works to do."

"Okay."

' _You are not a drop in the ocean; you are the ocean in a single drop._ ' Was the first quote he read.

' _Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind_.'

' _If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.'_

' _To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.'_

' _The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.'_

' _Any fool can know. The point is to understand.'_

' _By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.'_

' _A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.'_

' _Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive.'_

' _Only the dead have seen the end of war.'_

"You know a lot of wise words." Jiraiya said after reading the last one. That one didn't give him a very good feeling.

"It was a hobby of mine." Naruto replied. "I would collect quotes, memorize them and then when the situation is right recite them to annoy my friends."

"You never tried to understand them?"

"Any fool can know. The point is to understand." That was a quote he read just a moment ago. "All the quotes you see here are not all of what I collected. These are the ones I want to remind myself every day." Jiraiya turned around to look at Naruto. But he has already stood up to go to his kitchen to cleanup his plate. "I'm done. Just let me wash my hand." He said from his kitchen.

When Naruto emerged from the kitchen, Jiraiya put his hand on him and performed a body flicker. It took him 7 consecutive body flickers to take Naruto to a training ground that should be empty. The moment he stopped, Naruto clutched his stomach and ran to a nearby bush where he proceeded to empty it of its contents. Half a minute later he came back. His leg was wobbly. He cast a gaze full of irritation and annoyance at Jiraiya.

"We could've walked here."

"We could've but the result wouldn't have been this funny."

"Don't tell me vomiting is one of your erotic fantasies?"

"How can you think me to be so disgusting?"

"How can you think vomiting to be fun?"

"Good point." Jiraiya ended their argument there. He didn't want to argue about this. "Anyway, can you guess what I'm going to teach you?"

"Something useful."

"Can't you sound a little excited?"

"I am treating you with respect even though you are a self-proclaimed pervert. What more do you want?"

Damn that was a good point. Not many people showed him respect after he proclaims himself as a super pervert, especially women. Even Minato in his genin days, ruined his 'research' many times. His former best friend Orochimaru didn't show any appreciation to his hobby and the less Tsunade's reaction is told about is better. And this brat, who had taken his godson's place, has accepted him regardless of his vice, with a straight face no less. ' _He is the best godson any pervert can hope for. If I had a son of my own, I would've wanted him to grow up to be just like him._ '

"Anyway, I will be leaving the village in a week or two. And before I go there are few things I want to teach you. Your tutor will see to your taijutsu since he will work with you longer than me and I will come to check on you from time to time." He crossed his arms over chest and went into 'teacher mode'. "I want you to master the content of this scroll by the time I return in about let's say 6 months." He told Naruto as he threw a scroll to him. Naruto caught the scroll with curiosity. He looked at Jiraiya with question in his eyes. "You told Fu that your reserve is 40 times bigger than his. He still hasn't recovered from his chakra drainage. But still, to have chakra reserve that big means that you will have to work very hard to have decent enough control over it. That's why I have taken that scroll from sensei's personal library for you to master. It contains chakra control exercises that are beneficial for people like you. The scroll is very detailed. You can keep the scroll for 2 weeks though. So make a copy before that."

"Do you want me to start with this scroll now?"

"That won't be necessary for now. There is a jutsu that I will be teaching you for now. It is chakra expensive. So you don't have to worry about your control just yet. So tell me, are you ready."

"Yes sensei."

"Okay then the first jutsu is Shadow Clone Jutsu." He saw Naruto's ear perk up at the name of this jutsu.

"What is the difference between Water Clone and Shadow Clone?" Naruto asked with curiosity.

"The biggest difference is that, shadow clone relay their experience to the original whenever it is destroyed or dispelled."

"Whenever it is destroyed or dispelled." Naruto closed his eyes to contemplate Jiraiya's words. He opened them moment later. "You mean I don't have to be nearby to absorb chakra from it."

"That's right."

"And you said experience not information. Since earning experience is sometime exhausting, I take it I get the clone's exhaustion as well?"

"You catch on quickly." Jiraiya praised the boy. He noticed the boy's eyes gleaming for a moment before regaining their usual disinterested look.

"Would this jutsu help me in training then?"

"Absolutely." Then he gave the boy the warning. "But don't go overboard. Too many clones dispelling at the same time can knock you out."

"Then what are we waiting for." First time since he met the boy, Jiraiya watched the boy grin. It was genuine and it matched a photo of Naruto that his sensei sent him once. "Tell me everything about how it's done." Naruto said as he closed his eyes.

"Why are you closing your eyes?"

"It helps me visualize." Naruto answered still keeping his eyes closed.

Jiraiya wanted to teach the boy a lesson to not close his eyes. But the enthusiasm he showed made him pause. ' _He wasn't a shinobi before, but he will learn. I will teach him a lesson next time._ ' "Very well then. Listen carefully and listen well." He started. "The first step in making a shadow clone is….."

OxoxO


	5. A Day in the Academy

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.**

OxoxO

Sounds of arguing female voices broke me out of my sleep. There were maybe 5 or 7 of my female classmates. I tried to understand what they were arguing over. When one of them mentioned the word 'my beloved' and another questioned her right to claim _her_ Sasuke as her beloved, I couldn't help but let out groan. Did they really have to argue who would get to sleep with him in the future this early in the morning? Okay, not really sleeping with him but you get the point. Classes still hasn't started yet and judging by the volume they were arguing, it isn't going to die down anytime soon. There goes my hope of taking a nap before class. Guess I will follow Shikamaru's lead after class starts.

You might be wondering why I was sleeping in class right now. It's because yesterday was the last day the doctor told me to take it easy for. So today I wanted to test my limit by running. I woke 5 in the morning and after slurping down a cup of instant ramen, I went out to start running at jogging speed. The stamina Naruto possessed amazed me.

When I was a member of school fencing club, our coach would sometime tell us to run for 30 minutes. Even though many of us protested, we did it anyway. And when 30 minutes were over he would ask us to run for 10 more minutes _for him_. I did it without any complaints. Why? Because after 30 minutes of running I was too busy trying to breath to complain and my legs would move on their own.

But in Naruto's body I ran for 2 hours straight and the only problem I had was sore feet. Even that was gone after sitting down for 10 minutes. After that I slowly made my way to the Academy where one of my clones was instructed to bring my breakfast. After finishing the breakfast, there was still an hour and half time left before class starts. So I decided it will be time well spent if I take a nap. But the girls couldn't have chosen anywhere else to argue.

I stood up from my seat and went to the bathroom to wash my face. I looked around to see who else was in the class beside Sasuke's fan club. Other boys of the class were missing for the most part. No doubt playing; out in the playground. Shikamaru sat 2 rows in front of me, sleeping through the girls' screeching, either he had put on a pair of earplugs or he is that good in sleeping. Chouji was sitting beside him, munching on his chips without a care in the world. Sasuke was sitting in all by his lonesome, brooding and no doubt mentally going over **1001 Ways of Killing Your Brother Successfully** or **101 Arabian Wet Dreams of Killing Your Brother**.

On my way back to the class, I saw Hinata. The girl seemed tired even this early in the morning. That was to be expected, she spends every morning in Gentle Fist training. And trying to control your chakra and moving your limbs are hard. It's like trying to move one hand clockwise and the other anti-clockwise at the same time. You are going to mess up until you do it the right way for a thousand times.

"Hey Hinata, good morning." I greeted her when I came near her. The girl turned her head and greeted me. When we entered the class, I saw few other boys have come from the playground and the girls were still arguing, but this time with Ino and Sakura in the mix. Both of the girls have joined the other girls in staking their claims over Sasuke and the reasons they were his soulmates as loud as they can. I tried to tune out what they were saying/yelling but some of it still attacked my ears.

"I am his soulmate, 'cause I have black hair just like him."

"Your hair isn't natural black like mine."

"Both of you back off. Both my hair and eyes are black just like him."

"He already has those. Why would he need any of that? I am going to be his soulmate no matter what!"

"None of you girls have any chance with him over me, the Great Ino!" you don't need to guess this time. Our class's resident fashionista is going to declare her great destiny of her place being right beside Sasuke. "I have already started dieting so that I can stay slim and appealing in my precious Sasuke's eyes!"

"Hehehehe." I couldn't help but chuckle at the declaration. The concept of dieting was ridiculous in my eyes, especially at the age when you are growing. When my little sister wanted to go on a diet, my aunt denied her food for a whole day. She was only allowed food after she promised to never even think about dieting. "HAHAHA." And it turned into laughter. It dampened the mood Ino's declaration brought. Other girls were also staring at me like I have grown tails or something along the line.

"Hey, why are you laughing at me?" Ino demanded, shaking her fist threateningly from the other side of the aisle.

"What kind of idiotic plan is that? You think starving yourself will make you look sexy to the boy you like?"

"What gives you the idea? Huh?"

"Yeah, who told you that? My mom also told me to diet to make myself attractive." Another girl piped in.

"Last time I checked, I am a guy. And trust me not many guys would want to date a girl who will be blown away in the middle of a date when a strong gust passes by or a girl who looks like a skeleton." I replied. "And beside, do any of you know what kind of girl is Sasuke's type? He doesn't notice any of you." My questioned silenced them. When the silence stretched a bit longer, I supplied an important piece of information that is no doubt going make Sasuke's life a little harder. "I doubt he is going to unless you punch him in the face."

"I can't do that to my dear Sasuke!" the girls chorused in unison.

"What makes you so sure?" one girl asked, curious about my statement.

"After I pinned him down in our last spar, he has been stalking me. Before that, it was beneath him to notice me." That was true. Sasuke was a skilled fighter for his age. Naruto though had brute force, he was impatient and he didn't know many techniques to utilize his strength. In our last sparring match, I dodged his attacks for 10 minutes and then when he ran out of gas, I tackled him to the ground and kept him pinned down for 5 seconds, enough time to make sure victory was mine. And the class before that, I used the same tactic and knocked him out of the sparring ring with a punch to his face. Soon after I started to feel his chakra signature in my sensory field one day, _all_ day. He is yet to repeat the action a second time, but the girls didn't need to know.

"But I can't start eating like a pig. That will make me look ugly."

' _Your name means boar.'_ I almost laughed at Ino's words. "Eat what is necessary; just make sure the weight goes to the right places."

"Where?" This time Ino was intrigued. Other girls were also interested.

I moved my finger to my chest and made a circle over it. "Here, and," I moved my finger to my hips. "here." All the girls started to blush really hard at my advice. I took a peek beside me and yes, Hinata was blushing too, more than the other girls.

"You," Sakura stammered a response after the shock. "You pervert! You think we are going make our ass and boobs bigger for you to stare at!?" Still blushing, she shook her fist at me.

"You can see the proof when you are in the street. The guys can't tear their eyes off a woman who has big boobs, big ass or both. Why do you think older women get more guys than girls your age?" They had no reply to that. "I can prove my point here and now if you want."

The girls were surprised at my response. They looked among each other, not sure what to say. I moved to the seat beside Sasuke's and completed the seals needed for transformation. After getting the hang of transformation jutsu, I have started experimenting with Naruto's first original jutsu, the Sexy Jutsu which he already mastered to a degree. I was a bit surprised that he hadn't used this jutsu to get discount from young salesmen and pervy managers. Few of them had asked me out on a date but the classic ' **my boyfriend wouldn't like that** ' with a sweet smile deterred most of them. In one case, I had to use pregnancy card. If this jutsu gets a reaction from Sasuke, then that's good. If not, well I have already decided to label him as gay.

Since Sakura was the one who accused me of being a pervert, I chose her pink hair and green eyes as my theme. With a poof of smoke I turned myself into Zero Two from Darling in the FranXX, just with a pair of breast bigger than the original's. For attire I chose red swimsuit. The look was finished with red nail polish.

Sasuke was looking at me intently earlier, probably from me mentioning about him stalking me. Other boys in the class were also looking at me. When the smoke from the jutsu dissipated, all the other boys were barely holding themselves together; most of them had stupid grins on their faces. I focused my attention to Sasuke. Outwardly he didn't have any reaction to my transformation but I noticed a small bump in his pants that wasn't there before. I smirked at my success. Don't get me wrong, I am not into guys but I have a point to prove. Turning to him at point blank, I pressed my (temporary) generous cleavage on his arm. I hooked my left arm with his right and moved my right hand over his face. My right hand cupped his cheek and my left hand wondered over to his thigh. Moving my face as close to his face as possible without unintentionally kissing him, I spoke in the sexiest female voice I could master, "Sasuke dear, wouldn't you let me help you rebuild your clan?" I let my left hand wonder closer to the bump in his pant without touching it. "I know you want to. So what do you say? You and me?" a small, tiny really, drop of blood leaked from his nose. Huh, no matter how much of an avenger he wants to become, deep down he is still a preteen.

I cleared the droplet with my thumb. "Oh my! You are bleeding! Fear not my dear. I will nurse you back to health with _everything_ I have!" To take the show a bit further, I made a cross seal and with poofs of smoke, there were 2 more of me, one grabbed his left arm in between her bosom and the other one put her arms around Sasuke's neck placing her bosom at the back of his head. Me and the one on the left side moved our mouths near his ears and gently blew our words in them. "And after that, you can have as many of us you want!"

I took a look around the classroom from the corner of my eyes. As expected the whole class was frozen silent. The girls were stunned to see their precious Sasuke getting seduced by guy who was transformed into a Sakura look-alike. And the boys were bugg-eyed to say the least. They were enjoying the show very much; evident from the bulge they were sporting in their pants. Some of them were blushing; trying and failing to take their eyes off of what's going in front of them, specially the boys in the back row. They were enjoying the full view of the 2nd clone's butt.

After letting the class enjoy the show for a few more second, I dismissed the impromptu harem and undid my transformation as I backed off from his face. He was stunned, frozen like a statue. For a fraction of a second, I saw his eyes glance over Sakura. ' _Oh Sasuke, you dirty, dirty dog._ '

Standing up from the seat, I showed the proof of my victory to the girls. All of them were stunned by my display. "So girls, you still think my words are pointless?" they shook their heads from side to side dumbly. They have just seen what a mature female body can do to their precious.

Relishing in the victory over the crowd of girls, I made my way to my seat in the back of the classroom with Hinata following after me. After taking my seat I looked over at her. Yes, she was still blushing. ' _Okay, I don't want to know what the hell she is thinking after my display._ '

"So Naruto," Kiba started from his seat in row in front of mine and Hinata's. "What kind of girl do you like? What would you like to have big in your girl?" he asked with lecherous grin.

"That's for me to know and the girl to find out."

"Hey, come on dude! You can tell me right?"

"No can do."

"Good morning, Naruto." A monotonous voice catches our attention, Shino. He was sitting in the back of the classroom on the aisle beside ours.

"Good morning to you too, Shino." I greeted back. "So did you enjoy the show?"

"It surprised me how successful you were in you endeavor to get this kind of reaction out of Sasuke. Why? Because even before the massacre of his family happened, he wasn't a person to express his interest to females."

"It helped that I wasn't yelling a confession in his ear." Cause I have yet to see a guy who likes a girl who yells like that. "So did you take my request to your father?"

"I did. My father is curious about the reason of request. So he has agreed to grant you an appointment. I am to bring you with me to our compound after our classes end."

"Today?" he nodded at my question. "Good to see your dad doesn't want to waste time."

"Time is an asset impossible to reacquire if lost and also wasting time is illogical and counter-productive."

That's good to know. I was hoping the appointment would be maybe in a week's time. If I managed to impress the Aburame clan head with my strategy, it will be the first offensive maneuver I will have under my belt if I can somehow learn Shadow Clone Bomb. Until then I can gather blackmail materials on people.

OxoxO

"Who here can tell us about what event lead to the death of the Second Hokage?" our history teacher, Suzume asked.

Quite a few hands rose up at his question. Among the hand raisers, she chose a girl named Ami to answer the question.

"The signing of peace treaty between Hidden Leaf and Hidden Cloud where the Second Hokage met the Second Raikage. But the Gold and Silver brothers, who were among the Raikage's bodyguards, committed a coup and killed both the Kages."

"Does anyone here know who the Gold and Silver brothers were and why they were famous?"

"Kinkaku and Ginkaku of Hidden Cloud were known as Gold and Silver brothers." Sakura answered this question. "And they were famous because they wielded 4 of the 5 treasured tools of the Sage of the Six Paths; Kokinjo, Benihisago, Shichiseiken and Bashosen."

"Can anyone tell us about those treasured tools?" silence met the teacher's question. "Anyone?"

"I know about those tools." Most of the class stared at me hearing my reply. Even though my effort in removing Naruto's reputation as bad student was diminishing day by day, my classmates still disbelieved my claim of knowing about something they didn't.

"Then tell the class about them."

"Kokinjo is a rope that brings out a person's spirit word when that person is hit with. Shichiseiken is a flat, wide bladed sword that is used to cut the spirit word from the person. When the spirit word is cut with the sword the word appear on the surface of the blade. Benihisago is a gourd that records and seals the spirit word. Next time the person utters that word he gets sealed into the gourd. The person can also get sealed if he remains silent for too long. As for Bashosen, it's a fan that allows the wielder to use all 5 elemental affinities to perform jutsus associated with the fan. However those tools consume a large amount of chakra with every use attempted."

"Wow, those weapons were so cool!" someone from left aisle expressed his interest.

"Yeah, I wish I had them!" another one replied.

"You would die after the first use from chakra exhaustion." I don't know what came over me but I said that. And I know I sounded like a real asshole. "One use of any of those tools can put a chunin to sleep. You think you have what it takes to carry them around and use them at your whim?" I probably shouldn't have said that. This was totally out of character for Naruto. He didn't put others down like that. On the other hand, these brats were putting him down for years. So no, I don't feel guilty.

"If a Hidden Cloud ninja could use those tools then I can do it too." Imbecile 002 shot back at me. How many people lived in Hidden Leaf again? Maybe I should put 2 more zeroes at the start.

"Kinkaku and Ginkaku faced off the Nine Tails and stole powers from him. Not by using those treasured tools but by simply eating chunks of flesh from the Nine Tails' body. They were _that_ much tenacious." Imbecile #00001 and #00002 shrunk at my answer. After all there weren't many ninjas who had big and strong enough balls to face a tailed beast. Very few of them even survived the ordeal. To think those 2 survived days in Kurama's stomach by eating the stomach line; that takes balls of tungsten. Next part is going to shrink them more for sure. "They were also descendants of the Sage of the Six Paths which is the reason they survived the process. Before they attempted the coup, they were known as the Two Lights of Hidden Cloud. You think they are below you just because they were ninjas from another village?"

All the students and the teacher were stunned. They didn't expect Naruto, the dead last of the class to know this much info. Though the teacher might be stunned because she thought I was communicating with Kurama.

"Uzumaki, out of the class, right now." The teacher broke the silence. I could see the beats of sweat gathering on her forehead beneath her headband and there was a slight tremble in her form. I probably wouldn't have noticed them before. Ooh the perks of using Kurama's chakra to boost a growth spurt.

This period was the one before lunch break. So I took my lemon-water bottle and made my exit without a fuss. My lunch was already sealed in a scroll in my pouch. So I wasn't in a hurry to return to the classroom.

' _Hey, Ginji,'_ I asked Kurama as I walked in the hallway. _'when Kin and Gin attacked you, you had both yin and yang, right?'_

' _ **Stop calling me Ginji. That's not my name.'**_

' _Well you didn't like me calling you Shiku, and you wouldn't tell me your name. so I had to give you a different name.'_ I shot back. _'Now answer to my question. Am I right or not?'_

' _ **Yeah, you were right. So what?'**_

' _Well, I was thinking. If there are someplace or something that contains your chakra before you were split in half, and I absorb those stray chakra and give them to you, does that mean you will regain a part of your full power?'_

' _ **It might be possible. Why do you ask?'**_

' _What would you think if I said I just want to help you?'_

' _ **I would say you are nuts.'**_

' _That's reasonable. But would you accept the help?'_

' _ **And why exactly do you want to help me?'**_

' _Well you helped me to wake up earlier than predicted and grow a few inches. So I owe you one for that.'_ I replied to his inquiry. _'So is there a way to do that?'_

' _ **You could've done that but unfortunately both of them are dead. So unless you can summon them back from the dead, you won't have any luck getting my chakra from them.'**_ Which means the reanimation jutsu. But for that I would have to either go to Orochimaru or steal the forbidden scroll. And I'm not very keen on doing either of those.

' _Do you think your chakra would linger from the time of your attack on the village?'_

' _ **If it did, it would have saturated the land by now. In that state, it's not worth the time or effort to collect chakra that diluted.'**_

' _Well, it's worth a shot. After all, I have plenty of time on my hand.'_ Yeah, after learning the shadow clone, you will have time for everything you want to do. You just have to brace yourself for the mental backlash. _'So all you have to do is point me to the direction and I will do the rest.'_

' _ **You are too trusting.'**_

I couldn't resist myself from cracking the joke. _'Well, you and I are going to sleep together for the rest of my life. So why not make it tolerable for the both of us.'_ I cut our mental connection before he could huff and puff at me. I uncorked my lemon-water bottle and took a sip from it.

As Naruto was obsessed with ramen, I am obsessed with lemon water. Though to be honest, if you live in a tropical country with hot and humid climate, this is the best drink you can get yourself obsessed with. No worrying about potential liver diseases, drunkenness or police case. _Back_ home, a sizable portion of my allowance was spent on buying lemon. All though any bottle I would take with me to the school would be finished long before half the periods were done. For that I would take lemon and lemon squeezer to school.

Reminiscing my old life came to a stop as I bumped into someone.

"Naruto, why are you out of classroom?" Iruka asked me in his stern voice.

"The history teacher thought I wouldn't learn anything new from history." I answered before taking another sip. "And seeing that lunch break is right after this period, I thought it would be better to go to our group lunch place and wait for the other."

Iruka took a long, incredulous look at me. Probably he was thinking I was kicked out of class because I got too loud. From Naruto's memory, I knew he stopped disrupting Iruka's class after the mishap with the Waterfall ninjas. But the other teachers weren't so lucky. He let out a sigh and beaconed me to follow after him. I followed him to teachers' lounge. He took his seat behind his desk and I took the seat in front of it.

"Did you bring your lunch?" Iruka asked me.

"I have it right here." I answered him, showing the storage scroll containing my lunch.

"Naruto, where did you get the scroll?" he was surprised to see a storage scroll in my possession.

"Well, the old man gave it to me." Well, Sarutobi sent Jiraiya to me, who in turn gave me the scroll.

"You don't have any prank supply in it, do you?"

"Sensei, don't you have faith in me? I'd never prank you."

"Right." he shot me a lopsided smile. "But then again there are many poor sods that you can practice your pranking on."

"Do you think they didn't deserve any of those?" I never played prank before. But Naruto's experience in pranking people was very funny and exciting. If this world was advance enough to have social media, I would've put this skill of his to good use. I would've gotten thousands of followers. But regardless, it's a very useful way to practice trap making and in some cases, stealth.

"Naruto you can't waste your time playing pranks on people. You have made improvement in your tests after you were released from hospital. Don't you think you can do so much better if you spend your time studying?" that's something you can always expect from teachers. Lecture about studying. It's their universal habit. But then again, if they didn't they would lose a very valuable part of their character.

"Sensei, you don't have to worry about me wasting time. I have time for everything I want to do."

"How exactly? Last time I checked you don't have a magic clock that can stop time for you."

"Who needs magic clock when you have this?" with the cross seal, I performed the shadow clone jutsu. In an instant there was half a dozen of me in the teachers' lounge. Luckily there weren't any other teachers there. Iruka was shocked at first. The he slowly stood up from his chair. He walked up to a clone and patted him over his head.

"You can make solid clones!" the muffled happiness was evident in his voice. "You know I am jealous of you." He said smiling.

"Why exactly would you be jealous of me?"

"I tried to make my chakra reserve bigger before I became chunin. But then I became academy instructor and there was no time to perform the exercises for that. To think one of my own students has chakra reserve bigger than mine and he can use a jutsu like this." He returned to his seat. "I think it's a cause for celebration. How about I take you to Ichiraku's for dinner?"

"That sounds great!" refusing free meal was never in my nature. Beside the guy is trying to make up for his harsh treatment towards Naruto on his own. Who am I to refuse it?

OxoxO

"I hate Sasuke." Not even the first bite was chewed fully, Kiba made his detest for Sasuke known.

"And why do you hate that guy?" I asked as I bit down on the apple in my hand. _Hmm, this apple somehow tasted different. I better save the seed to plant later._

"Look right over there." Kiba pointed with his chopstick. I followed his direction and saw Sasuke being harassed by a gang of fangirls. Some of them were trying to show off their figure. "After the stunt you pulled on him this morning the girls have started trying to seduce him. It's even worse than before!"

"Why don't you just ignore them? Girls are troublesome anyways." Shikamaru shared his piece of wisdom.

"I assume it's mostly because of Sasuke's reaction to Naruto's sexy jutsu form that they realized they still have some hope to get Sasuke's attention." Shino said in his monotonous voice. Normally he would sit by himself to pass lunch time. But since I was going to visit his home after academy closes, I invited over to our circle. He accepted the invitation and joined us but he barely said a word until now.

"You know," I started saying as I took a rice ball from my bento box. "I might have made most of their chances with Sasuke slim."

"You did?" Kiba was surprised. "How?"

"What color of hair did my sexy jutsu form have?"

"Pink."

"And what color of eyes did it have?"

"Green."

"And for the final question, who else has them?"

"That would be Sakura."

"After I released my transformation, I saw Sasuke checking her out for a moment." Thank god for the mercy that Naruto still haven't started chasing after that girl. Otherwise it would've been really hard to explain how I was okay with it.

"Damn!"

"By the way Naruto," Shikamaru looked at me. "How did you know so much about Kinkaku and Ginkaku?"

"Old man third was present in that meeting." I gave my answer. "He knew few things about those two beforehand. And it was while they were making their retreat that Lord Second selected him to be Hokage. I once asked to tell me stories about the Hokages. He told me that story then."

"Um, N-Naruto," Hinata stuttered a bit before asking her question. There was a little bit red adorning her face. "Why did you use transformation jutsu that way?"

"I've been using the jutsu for a while now. It's great against perverts, a good distraction against male ninjas. Right now I am working on form that can be used against females."

"Hey dude," Kiba started, "could you may be teach that one?"

"Kiba, if you want to get girls for a long time then don't use transformation. It's just temporary and meant to be a distraction." I replied in between my bites. "It's not like every girl out there is trying to get Sasuke. I'm sure there would be someone who would go out with you."

"So," Chouji started. "The star festival is coming up in a month. Do you guys wanna do something new this time?"

"What do you plan on doing?"

"I was planning on opening a stall this time."

"Isn't your family going to open their stall?" I thought that since Chouji said that many of his clan members who are of duty during a festival open up their stall, Chouji would work in one of them. If he wanted to work that is.

"They are. But I was thinking about opening a stall with Naruto's foods."

OxoxO

sandmanwake: I hope the next chapter will answer your question.

IcarusPhenex: Congrats on getting the hint.

Hitoshi075: I hope the next chapter will answer your question.

senjumenma: I hope you got the hint from this chapter.


	6. Rijuan

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.**

OxoxO

' _It's good to be a kage._ ' Hiruzen thought to himself as he blew a ring of smoke from his mouth.

For years after Minato's death, he cursed few times his successor for dying so early in his reign and leaving the workload of a kage in his responsibility. Not because of the amount it came in as he knew about how a kage can utilize shadow clone jutsu. After all before they made their retreat from the Kinkaku force of Cloud, Tobirama Senju bestowed him that bit of knowledge. His sensei thought that any kage's workload will increase day by day as his village progress. But the problem is, with old age, his vast chakra reserve has diminished and his vitality has also waned. The mental strain that comes with the accumulated experience from this jutsu has become more unbearable in recent years. In the last days of his first tenure, he could use up to 4 shadow clones to lighten his load. But after 3 years into his second tenure, he had to abandon the idea of using more than one shadow clone for that purpose for the sake of his health.

For years he thought about finding another successor to his office. But as usual Jiraiya refused, Tsunade was nowhere to be found and the less that can be talked about Orochimaru's stunt a few years back, the better. The thought of his third student's experiment on human bodies in his search for immortality made his blood boil to this day. He still regrets letting that scoundrel go for his hesitation.

His first choice beside his students was Shikaku, but he knew even though the Nara patriarch was overly intelligent for the role of Hokage, he was too lazy and content with what life has given him. He considered selecting Kakashi for the job but the copy ninja was too wallowed in his past. Not to mention, there is a joke going on that if he became Hokage, nothing in this village will be done before 3 hours.

And he knew his old teammate Danzo would take any opportunity to take the hat from him. The assassination attempt few years back proved that.

However, Jiraiya's new student's way of using water clones and his experimentation on shadow clones has provided the solution for his first problem. Naruto, or the newcomer, wrote down his findings of using his chakra absorption ability with these jutsus which his ANBU saw and promptly informed him.

One shadow clone absorbs chakra from another shadow clone.

The absorber receives the other clone's memory instead of the original.

Experience of receiving memory from after a shadow clone dispels is like drinking a bottle of cold water in one gulp. It causes brain freeze.

If a shadow clone absorbs chakra from 100 shadow clones that trained or studied for hours and the original absorbs chakra from that shadow clone, it gives a migraine. A 30 minutes nap while hearing meditative music is solution to that.

Now Hiruzen may not have a natural ability to absorb chakra like Naruto, but he wouldn't be called the Professor if he didn't have any knowledge about jutsus that could compensate for that. Proper utilization of water clone and shadow clone in combination of Chakra Leeching jutsu has allowed him time to relax. And to think it had been discovered and exploited by a new comer who didn't have any prior knowledge of chakra whatsoever.

Thinking about the boy, he felt a pain his chest. His student only knew about Naruto from his letters but he didn't know him in person. So he easily coped with his loss and decided to make the best of what he got. However Hiruzen didn't have that luxury.

Hearing about Naruto's change in character, he simply assumed it as a side effect of going into coma. A darker part of his mind whispered that his change was due to the Nine Tails' influence. He went over scenarios after scenarios of what could be the cause for his change and how he would act because of this change. A 19 years old teenager with the memories of his past life intact spiritually replacing an 8 years old boy wasn't one of them. Naruto was dead, spiritually speaking and there is nothing he can do about it.

He wouldn't say it out loud but he thought about _exorcising_ his spirit out of Naruto's body and giving him a proper burial. But his experience with death and his acceptance of it made him think twice. It clashed with his desire to live longer than his previous life but it was clear he wasn't afraid of death. Hiruzen would say that the boy would go so far as to embrace it, seeing as he lost everything or better said ' _left everything behind_ ' and there is no way for him to get them back.

And then there was the fact that he was the jinchuriki of the Nine Tails in Naruto's stead now. There is no telling what the Nine Tails would do or what the boy would allow the beast to do if his life was endangered. Naruto craved acknowledgement from people which is the reason that even when he exacted revenge on the people who belittled him, they were always harmless. That was also why Hiruzen knew he would suppress any attempt the Nine Tails would make to escape and stop it from harming people.

But the newcomers saying 'I think, so I exist' dashed any hope of him seeing the villagers' acknowledgement as anything important. Among all the jinchurikis of the beast, he was the first one who contacted the Nine Tails for anything other than power and offered him friendship. He didn't show any sign of using the beast's power but he was sure they both have regular conversation, if his statement about Gold and Silver Brothers' encounter with the Nine Tails in the history class last week was any indication.

So he tasked an ANBU team to keep watch over the new comer since his meeting with Inoichi and Jiraiya. They kept watch over him in turns and reported everything to him in details. Between the ANBU squad, Jiraiya's training and his crystal ball, he had an accurate record of the boy's days.

Personality-wise, the boy was an ambivert. He enjoyed spending time with his friends. He raced with the Inuzuka heir and his dog. He lazed around and watched clouds with Shikaku's son. He helped the Hyuga heiress with his confidence issue. He cooked unusual foods, like yellow rice, and shared them with his friends which very much pleased the Akimichi in their group. And in last few days, he studied about bugs with quiet Aburame boy. He knew what to talk about with whom. He cracked jokes, but sometimes held himself back from doing so. Hiruzen suspected the reason for that to be adult jokes that shouldn't be told in the presence of children. He even gave advices to them few times.

He also likes to spend time in solitude. More than once he was seen in forest outside Leaf's wall meditating. The calm projected in his face indicated his experience in doing this for hundreds of hours. Sometime he could be seen floating in water of a lake or pond, face skyward.

He was studious. Often times, the boy could be seen reading one book or another. After Jiraiya taught the boy shadow clone, he sends clones to the library to read books on history and various novels on a daily basis with the help of a dictionary. The boy himself can be seen engrossed in a book.

In bits and pieces, the boy told Jiraiya about his old world and some of its history. For better understanding, he drew a map and marked important places and countries on it. According to the boy, his old world hadn't faced any large scale war after the Second World War and that happened in the first half of the last century. The last war his own country faced was when his people fought for independence from foreign rulers more than 3 decades before his birth.

Of course, there were still fights going on different parts of the world; civil wars, terrorist attacks and border skirmishes. But very few of them escalated to the stage of war. There was an international organization consisting of representative from every country that diffuses any situation before it goes that far.

This idea gave Jiraiya a sliver of that peace is achievable through non-violent means. In one of his breaks in training, Jiraiya asked the boy if he thinks all wars can be stopped. The boy's counter-question made Jiraiya uneasy. He asked if mankind stopped fighting who will the weapon manufacturers sell their weapons to, what the mercenaries would do. That was a sobering realization for Jiraiya, that there will always be people who would cause war for their benefit.

As far as the training goes, the boy is a hard-worker. He would do any drill or exercise Jiraiya would put him through without complaint. He also trained himself on his own. Though his self-training mostly covered chakra control exercises which he recognized as the ones he wrote down in a scroll in his private library. Jiraiya said he has _borrowed_ the scroll when he returned the scroll few days ago. Till now, Jiraiya had run him through basic taijutsu katas and physical conditioning. Each day after cool down the boy would take short nap to get his strength back. With Jiraiya's training regime and more varieties in his diet, there was a significant improvement in his health.

Hiruzen looked out the window. It was almost evening outside; the sun has started to set on the horizon. He looked behind him. His clones had almost finished the paperwork for today; right now they were working on the last pile. The mission office has been closed for the day, so there is no more mission to give out tonight. Any team returning from mission can debrief to the jonin in charge of that. If there was anything serious enough to call him back in the office, one of his shadow clone can dispel itself to let him know.

He took another long drag of his pipe. He should go meet the boy. He had stalled the meeting long enough; hoping beyond hope that next morning the real Naruto would come back. He didn't meet him till now because he still hadn't made peace with the fact that there is someone else occupying Naruto's body. The reports from both ANBU and Jiraiya painted a positive picture of the boy. But he has to see it for himself to determine the boy's character.

Moving over to his desk, he brought out the crystal ball. With the necessary hand seal done, the crystal started to focus on Narutos all over the village. That boy was abusing the hell out of his shadow clones. The ball shifted through one Naruto to another by searching the one with bigger chakra reserve. Currently there were 5 shadow clones in public library, in history section, 2 shadow clones were busy buying groceries both of them in disguise of teenage girls, 3 shadow clones in Naruto's apartment, one was cooking, another was doing homework and the last one was going through chakra control scroll. Finally the ball settled on the real Naruto.

The young man was in cliff-side of a hill, lying on the ground and looking at the sky. The expression on his face could only be described as lost. A soft, sad smile was gracing his face.

' _More than likely he is reminiscing his past life.'_ Hiruzen thought to himself. The hill wasn't very far from Hokage Tower, just about a kilometer and half north of the Hokage Monument. He turned the crystal ball off and left his office. But not before taking an item with him.

After a quick succession of body flicker, Hiruzen reached the near the hill. Even though he could've reached the boy in another body flicker, he decided to take a walk instead. He spread out his chakra sense as he neared the boy. He was still in the same place. He sensed the ANBU tasked with watching him about a hundred yards away.

"The stars, they look very beautiful in the night sky, don't they?" he asked as he came in 10 feet near the boy. He was still lying on the ground, with his hands behind his head, legs crossed.

"They would always look beautiful from this distance." He replied. Craning his neck towards his direction he faced toward Hiruzen. "Would you mind if I don't sit up? I know it's disrespectful but…." He shrugged without finishing his sentence.

Hiruzen didn't mind. This wasn't any formal meeting in presence of other influential figures of the village. So he let it slide. With his mastery over earth style, he made a small earth wall to sit on.

"You look lost." The boy didn't answer, so he continued. "Are you thinking about your family?"

"I was thinking if my old world was anywhere near of one of those stars."

"Do you plan on visiting them?"

"Even if I could travel at the speed of light, it would take at least 4 years to reach the nearest star. And since the constellations look different from what I knew, either this planet is in a different part of the galaxy or a different galaxy. There is no way I am going to reach them before my time is up." Hiruzen felt somewhat sorry for the boy. Dying, getting a second chance in life and then realizing you are so far away from the people you grew up amongst that even a thousand lifetimes wouldn't be enough to reach them. Not to mention, they will _leave_ a LONG time before that.

"Do you miss them?"

"19 years." Oh yes, he lived for 19 years. "It's hard not to even when you made peace with the fact." There was a pause after his answer.

"How are you coping?"

"Like I always did before. I've been keeping my mind busy. You could say that it's because of this that I didn't push Jiraiya away when he offered to train me. I am glad that he has been running me into the ground. The less I think about what's lost, the easier it will be to live here and now." This time the boy sat up and faced him. "It would be better for this conversation if we knew each other's name. I already know yours but I know you wouldn't start thinking me as Naruto like Jiraiya. So, you can call me Rizwan if you want. It was my name before and I am still having trouble of associating myself with another name."

"Rijuan." Hiruzen tried the name on his tongue. He saw the amused look in the boy's eyes. His pronunciation of the word was different from the boy's. He noticed that when he pronounced his name, his accent changed just for that word. _He used to speak in different language_. "What does your name mean?" he questioned. For security reason of course. If someone else tried to impersonate Naruto, he can ask this question to decide if he is real or not.

"My name was taken from the name of angel who guards the gate to heaven. It also means contentment and satisfaction."

"Okay, Rijuan," Hiruzen started, "you can understand my wariness regarding you. I knew Naruto very well and even though I know somewhat about your character, there are some things you said that worries me about the safety of the villagers, namely your lack of need for their acknowledgement. From that angle, how do I know that you wouldn't harm them?"

"I am a homesick person." Rijuan stated. "The climate and surrounding of the village is something that is similar to my old country. So you could say that I got attached to your village. I won't harm her in anyway, that's my promise to you. And I don't make a promise that I don't intend to keep with all I got."

His answer alleviated some of Hiruzen's worry. But he only spoke about the village not the people that lived here. "What about the people? Since you took Naruto's place, you will receive their scorn now."

Rijuan took a long breath at the question and closed his eyes. He opened them a moment later. "Let me tell you a story of my world." Rijuan started. "A long time ago, almost 2 and half millennia ago, there was a king named Alexander. In history books, he was noted as Alexander the Great. He expanded his father's kingdom from a city-state to an empire and conquered another empire and annexed it to his own. And he did all that in just 10 years." There was admiration in his voice. "One day, in the middle of his conquest, he went on a hunting trip. At one point he got separated from his companions. Sun was setting and it was getting harder to see in the forest. Luckily he found a goat track leading to the edge of the forest. He followed the track and found a small village at its end. The village chief welcomed Alexander. The sun has set and there was no way Alexander could return to his hunting party, so he decided to stay the night at the village. The villagers threw a feast for him as best as they could. When the feast was nearing at its end, 2 men approached the chief. They had a pitcher full of gold coins between them. They told the chief that they are having problem about who should take the pitcher. One of them has bought piece of land for farming from the other. This morning, when he was preparing the soil for planting seeds, he found the pitcher. When he saw it was full of gold coin, he immediately took it to the previous owner. He said that he bought only the land, not the pitcher and not the gold coins in them, so the pitcher and its gold belong to him. The previous owner said that he sold the land which means he sold everything in it; so the gold belongs to the new owner. They argued from morning till the evening and they still couldn't decide to who should take the gold. So they came to the chief for a solution." Hiruzen was surprised that people would not take something valuable even when others say it belonged to them. "The chief closed his eyes and rubbed his chin for a moment. When he opened his eyes he asked if the new owner had a son and the previous owner had daughter. They answered yes. Then the chief said to marry them to each other. That way half the gold would go to the bride's father and the other half would go to the groom to care for his wife and family. Both fathers agreed to the solution and the feast turned into a wedding. Alexander himself officiated the marriage and as a gift to the newlyweds, he gave his diamond necklace. When the party died down and everyone went home, the chief asked Alexander if something similar happened in his kingdom how he would solve it. Alexander answered that if something like this happened then there is big chance that the person who found the gold would keep it for himself. And if they take the problem to the court, then most likely the gold would be appropriated by the state. The village chief remained silent for a long time and then said in a low tone that it must be because of the innocent animals living in his kingdom that gods hadn't forsaken them." Rijuan ended his story there.

Hiruzen closed his eyes and thought about what Rijuan is trying to say in his story. He thought about the last sentence and asked, "So you are saying that you wouldn't do anything against them because you think there are some innocents there?"

"If I go around punishing people for scorning me, it would be much more brutal. My previous life was peaceful. I had no use for violence then. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't be willing to be violent if I am pushed too far, pressed too hard and scorned too much. You want an honest answer; that is my response."

"You know, I can put you in prison for saying that, right?"

"I do." Rijuan replied. "If I am not wrong, then this is actually the most common theme with jinchurikis. Even there is a chance that Naruto could've gone down the same path. There are so few people in this village who spares a thought for him that I am actually surprised that he didn't already. What would've happened after your death? Your moniker might be God of Shinobi but you won't live forever. The Ichirakus lost a good portion of their customer after they started feeding Naruto on a regular basis. Their business is hurting. What would've happened when they decided to move out of the village? And then there is Iruka. I don't know what actually happened but it's as if one morning he decided that Naruto didn't deserve his scorn. There was a chance that he wouldn't have. What is left for Naruto then to stay in the village for? The Hokage hat? A number of people in the village's hierarchy thinks Naruto as a weapon. They would never allow Naruto to be their leader. And by some miracle, if he gets the hat; it wouldn't turn all the suffering, all the time lost is loneliness and sorrow magically into a happy memory. A position of power is never worth more than a person's years of happiness."

Each scenario Rijuan presented, Hiruzen was reminded of the hard truth. That he failed to protect Naruto from the harsh treatment of the villagers. And now Naruto is no longer here. Now the village has to deal with someone who is restraining himself from being violent and it's all thanks to the few friends he made. What would happen when someone decided to manipulate Naruto by using his friends as leverage?

"Naruto," Hiruzen noticed his slip after the name left his lips, "What would happen if someone tries to harm your friend?"

"I will pluck his entrails and shove them down his throat." Naruto- Rijuan replied without missing a beat. "Metaphorically."

The restrained anger in his voice and the momentary flash of fire in the boy's eyes told Hiruzen that if needed, he wouldn't be unwilling to do that literally. The emotion behind his answer, however brief, and the willingness to go to the extreme for his friends was admirable in Hiruzen's eye. Now only if he could make the boy think about the village the same way he thinks about his friends, or the other way around. He let out a long sigh.

"Rijuan, I will admit that I failed to protect Naruto from the villagers' mistreatment. And now I believe that his passing was due to this very reason. I am sorry that you had to take his place and all the mistreatment and hatred will be coming your way. It will take time for me to totally accept you as Naruto. But I will do right by you. As someone who could easily reject us as his people but didn't, someone who is willing to keep his friends safe with everything he has, someone who has no true reason to stay loyal to this village but still did; you deserve that much."

Rijuan looked at his face for a long time then he nodded his face. "I can work with that. It's good that we have an understanding."

He extended his hand for a handshake. Hiruzen took the outstretched hand in his own and shook it. After the handshake, they remained in a comfortable silence.

"Jiraiya asked me to find a tutor for you. Do you have any preference for that?" Hiruzen enquired after a long moment of silence. It wouldn't be hard to find a tutor for the boy who wouldn't outright hate the boy. But if there was a certain quality he would appreciate to have in a teacher, he would look into it.

"Not really. I would trust your judgment on that." _Meaning he wants to see if I would find the right person to teach him_.

"In that case," Hiruzen retrieved a piece of chakra paper from his robe. "Would you mind channeling your chakra into this paper?" he had that piece of paper on him for days after Jiraiya had said that he would take the boy as a student. He thought that since the boy was older in mind and his personality is fixed, he can go ahead and start training in his chakra nature after few months. It's just that his indecision kept him from meeting the boy.

"Sure, why not?" he took the paper from the Hokage's hand and channeled chakra into it. Though, ' _channeled'_ might not have been the right word for it. More like _poured_ chakra into it. Hiruzen noted to himself to choose someone who knew chakra control inside and out.

The result the chakra paper showed, bewildered him. The paper split into 2 parts and both of them were soaked. Wind and water.

"I didn't know I could be a wind type." Looks like he did a bit of studying about chakra natures and ways to determine them.

"You are not surprised about water?" Hiruzen asked. Most of the time children would want their elements to be flashy, like fire and lightning.

"Not really. One time I played a quiz to determine my soul element. Mine came out water. That was few months ago. It might be because of influence of local environment. My country was a riverine land beside a bay and every year flood would submerge most of the countryside." He looked to Hiruzen. "Frankly speaking, I don't know what I can do with wind other than flying or making typhoon and hurricane. On the other hand, you can do so many things with water though. You can farm with it. You can hydrate your friend with it. If you put enough pressure you can cut steel with it. If there is impurity in it, you can electrocute your enemies by channeling electricity through it. And if you have enough power, you can flood considerable area with it. Simply put, you can overwhelm your enemies with it."

The boy's speech about water made Hiruzen reminded Hiruzen of his sensei. _'Is it possible that Tobirama-sensei was reincarnated in him without his memories? Although sensei wasn't half as laidback as him'_

"You remind me of my sensei, my boy." He smiled at the boy's curious gaze. "He was a master of water style ninjutsu. He talked about water just like you did." He looked at the starry sky above. "Tobirama-sensei was a great man. While Lord Hashirama brought other clans together to build the village; Tobirama-sensei laid out the much needed infrastructures to make sure the village lasts and prospers. Lord Hashirama might've been a force to be reckoned with and someone who could bring people together; he wasn't very good at diplomacy. Tobirama-sensei looked after that part of the village work."

"No one is good at everything. I had a teacher once who wasn't very good at teaching his subject at the time. Being new and inexperienced and all that. But he cared for his students greatly and he was very good at motivating us. By the time I left academy, he was the most popular teacher." there was another long silence after that. "Do you hate me?" Rijuan asked suddenly.

"What makes you think that?"

"You were close to Naruto. There are very few people who were. When I took Naruto's place, he was lost to you since then. I want to know if you hate me for it."

Hiruzen took a long drag of his pipe. He let out the smoke and thought about what to say. He looked over at the boy. He was still staring at the starry sky above. "You say that you took Naruto's place. Is there any chance that Naruto took your place?"

The boy let out a low chuckle at that. "If that's true, then he is in for a ride."

 _In for a ride? What does he mean by that?_ "Were you going to get married?" as Hiruzen said that, he couldn't help himself from thinking about 8 years old Naruto marrying a 19 years old young woman. He shuddered at the thought of what would come next.

"Oh no, not something that bad. I was accepted in the engineering school. He has at least 8 years of math to catch up to. If he finds my memories like I did his, then there is still hope. I am sure my friends wouldn't mind taking it upon themselves to teach him the rest. Heh, they are going to take their frustration of hours of me trying to make them understand the subject on the poor guy. Lucky for him, he has up to 11 months to learn all that stuff."

Hiruzen cringed at the thought of Naruto being surrounded by a posse of volunteers too eager to teach him 8 years of math. "I think that will be even worse for him. Is there anything else he can do other than being an engineer?"

"Well, he wanted to be a ninja. So I guess he can try to join the military. I had fit enough physique and good academic result for that. Then again, he would need to recover from severe injury for that."

"Do you have any guess what life in the military will treat him?"

"My country didn't have much resource to go on a war. So job in the army is fairly safe. If he is accepted in exam, then he will have to endure about a year and a half of bullying in military training. After that, everything is fine. He will retire at 45, get a piece of land and a big amount of money as pension. He might get called for UN peace mission though. Now that's dangerous."

 _UN or United Nations. The organization that keeps peace between the countries._ "Why would peace missions be dangerous?"

"Cause those missions mean, you get deployed in countries thousands of miles away that are usually plagued with civil wars. Although rare, you can die from bullets from any group while treating people who are affected by both parties." So that was the risk of being in army. To be frank, that life was much safer than that of a shinobi's where a genin can die in his first C rank mission.

For a better part of next few hours that night, the aged leader and the teen trapped in a child's body alternated between talking about something and lapsing into silence. They left the place eventually when their stomachs expressed their discomfort for remaining empty for so long. One returned home with a slightly lighter heart and the other….. Well, it's hard to say what was going on in his mind.

OxoxO

AN: My next chapter might take time. I am kind of in writer's block. So many ideas and so little time to write.


	7. Tanabata Is Coming

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.**

OxoxO

'SPLAT'

My frustration reached a new height as for the 13th time, a water balloon popped against my face after it hit me. Luckily this time it contained water. The 12 ones before this didn't have only water. There were paints, glue and glitter.

"Dodge faster, moron!" Jiraiya howled as he retrieved another balloon from his pouch. He was enjoying this training too much because he wasn't at the receiving end.

"Well, I think I am getting better at it." I shot back as I ducked under the first balloon he shot at me and dived left to dodge the next one.

Today, Jiraiya has decided to teach me the value of dodging. As if I didn't know. Even though I never went to any martial art lesson, I knew that you should always know how to dodge because it saves your teeth more than you can count.

So to save my face being painted with various shades of various colors, glue and glitter, I have been dodging the balloons for last 20 minutes. My reaction time is decreasing with every balloon that grazed my face.

My training continued for another hour. I wasn't allowed to use any jutsu the whole time. But I wasn't unhappy with it.

"Kid, how is your replacement jutsu coming along?" Jiraiya asked as he offered me his water bottle.

"I can't say if it's a development or not. 5 of my shadow clones trained for 10 hours non-stop in that jutsu. I think the clone-in-charge could do the jutsu with 2 handseals towards the end. But my handseals speed isn't that fast. So I am practicing my handseals in my spare time." I answered in between taking gulps of water; though most of the water was spent cleaning my face off of glitter, glue and paint. I returned the bottle after my thirst was satisfied and my face clean enough for now.

"That's good." Jiraiya said as he took the bottle from my hand. "And how is your calligraphy coming along? Are your kanjis recognizable?"

"Yeah, the few kanjis that I can remember are recognizable now."

"That's good. Now you can write me letters that I can understand."

"I can always write in hiragana for that."

"That you can. But if you learn to write kanji flawlessly, then you can do so much more."

"Like what?"

"Like sealing jutsu."

"Sealing jutsu? Like keeping the Nine Tails inside me? Trapping a genie in a bottle?"

"Yeah, like that." I am pretty sure he didn't get the last part of my question. "Remember sealing is an art. To be the best in this art, you will have to learn to write kanjis perfectly and fast. When you can do that in, let's say 2 years, I will start teaching you this art."

"Why only 2 years?" I asked. Kanji wasn't easy to learn specially for someone like me who wasn't familiar with ways of writing in this system. To me, kanjis were still symbol akin to hieroglyphs. At least hieroglyph was easy to learn if you knew how to draw animals. But kanjis weren't pictures. They were slashes from ink brush and you have to know how many stroke you will need for a symbol and where each stroke will go. All in all, I thought it would take even longer to learn all the kanjis essential for sealing jutsu.

"Kid, you have shadow clone under your belt. I am sure you will manage." Jiraiya said as he stood up. "Now scram to your class. I have research to do."

And with a body flicker, he vanished to no doubt some bathhouse. I stood up moment later and made my way to Ichiraku's for breakfast. Jiraiya had hounded me at 5 in the morning while I was still sleeping after reading up on science books that I have managed to take home from the library. So didn't get the chance to make a clone to prepare breakfast. Sure I could go back to my apartment and prepare breakfast but stomach has already started grumbling. So Ichiraku it was.

Ichirakus opened their stall early. They may be just finished their first batch of noodles for today. I ordered three large bowls of ramen as I sat on a stool; one beef, one chicken and one vegetable. At this early in the morning, there weren't any customer beside me. I placed my head on the counter and closed my eyes. Moments later, Ayame placed my order in front of me.

As always, Ichiraku's ramen was good. Over the meal, we had small talks about what's going on in our lives. After the meal was done, I made my way to my apartment to take a bath and place my clothes in the laundry.

After that I made lunch for the day. A collection of yellow rice, or as we used to say in bangla, khichri, omelet, cooked meat and some fruits. Usually, lunch would've taken only a box to fit in and the fruits would've gone to my pouch. But I made khichri last night and for some reason whenever I ate this food, my stomach takes a large amount of it to be satisfied even though it packs more than double calories than rice. Beside I would have to share some of it with the others.

Sealing the lunch inside storage scroll I looked at the clock. 8:35 in the morning. There is still time for academy to start. I took a milk bottle from fridge and few pieces of meat out. I placed the milk bottle at the side my backpack and took the meat pieces in my pocket after wrapping them in paper. Slinging my backpack on my shoulder, I made my way out of my apartment and to the nearby park.

The park was empty other than handful of people who were here for morning walk. Some of them turn their noses seeing me. I didn't give it much thought as I walked past them toward the bushes. Behind the bushes, there were 6 cats lazing around surrounding an old ramen bowl with upper part broken. Seeing me, they stirred and stood up. I took out the milk bottle and poured it into the bowl for them to drink. 3 of the cats placed their moth in the bowl and other 3 came near me. I activated Yamanaka sensing technique and stretched my sense to the cats in front of me. ' _Yep, they are_ the _cats.'_

I took one cat in my arms. Gathering chakra in my palm, I stroked its head and searched for chakra similar to mine. ' _There._ ' I found the chakra at the back of its head. Pouring a careful amount of chakra into the feline so as not to overload its system with my chakra and unintentionally killing the poor creature, I connected my chakra to the chakra in its head. After the connection was established, I drained it little by little. With every drop of chakra returning to me, I received new information. This cat has gone to a councilman's house last night. The man had thrown a party for successfully concluding a deal with some merchant from Rice Country. The deal didn't interest me but the discussion following after that did. Apparently the councilman has been dodging taxes for a long time. Long enough, that he gathered enough money to buy a large estate in Rice country. Now that the deal was in place, he can move his money from here to Rice under the guise of business trip. That was a juicy blackmail material. _It's decided, I am gonna keep a tab on the guy._

I took the next cat after I was done with the first one. This one trailed another councilor for the whole day yesterday. The man was a very strict businessman with no nonsense attitude. But that was all in his office. After the office was done he made his way to the red light district. He was jumpy and nervous all the way. That was expected. The guy was married with 2 children. He moved his head from side to side with every step he took. After entering the red light district, he made his way to a love hotel. That surprised me at first. From his talk with a friend on the way to the area, his wife has been gone to her parents' home for visit for over a week. I thought that the guy was going to a brothel to blow some steam. But a love hotel means a relationship outside marriage, a mistress most likely. Any the cat followed him discreetly into the establishment and asked for a room that was occupied by a woman named Fujiko. The cat followed him to the floor he went but wasn't successful in getting inside through the door. However that didn't break its determination for getting a reward for a job well done. The feline made its way around the hotel and hopped from sun-shed to sun-shed to get inside the room the guy went into. Fortunately the room was well lit. The guy went to the bathroom to take a shower. The woman occupying the room was getting dressed for their upcoming activity. When her face was visible, she looked similar to the man's wife. There are few scenarios that can explain this. One of those scenarios was confirmed when they started talking after the guy came out of bathroom. _Huh, so he is cheating on his wife with her sister_. The cat left when their kissing started to get steamy. It checked the room at time of sunrise and they were still there. They woke up not before long and with a passionate kiss and decision to meet the next Sunday, they went their way. _I need to buy a camera._

The last of the trio had ventured to Danzo's Root base and surprisingly it succeeded in infiltrating the place. My Aburame maneuver, meaning my shadow clones transformed into dozens of tiny little bugs, didn't get me any positive result in that regard. The base was covered in a barrier of sort. Any of my clones that came into contact with the barrier exploded from sudden burst of pain in the chest. It seems that Danzo made a barrier that would give a shock to any human or a clone that comes into its range, with Root soldiers being the exception. _So the barrier keeps human and their clones out but not animals._ The cat found a ventilation system at one side of the earthen mound not long after. But its opening was barred. So there was no chance for the cat to enter through it and no other entry point could be found nearby. So the cat returned from its mission and wondered around in Market District. It saw a new electronic shop offering big discounts on their products for its grand opening. The offer that caught my attention was the offer on Walkman. After discount, the price was 2800 Ryus. The devise would come in handy.

Placing the last cat on the ground, I took out the meat from my pocket. Unwrapping them, I placed the pieces in front of the watch-cat trio. They bit into pieces of their choosing and trotted away. My intel collection from my watch-cats here is done.

I stood up and stretched. I was sitting for about half an hour. Watch-cats were result of a jutsu failure. After Jiraiya started training around 2 weeks ago. The first thing he taught me was shadow clone jutsu. I had hard time keeping my excitement in check. Why he decided to teach me a jonin level kinjutsu wasn't clear to me. It could be that he thought that since I could basically use water clones the same way one would use shadow clone; it would benefit me more. Or it could be that he wanted to cram as much training he could in the short period of time he had in his hand. Regardless of his reason, this jutsu gave me more time to try and experiment the jutsus that I had acquired from Fu. One day, one of my clones decided to try Mind Transfer Jutsu. He tried it on a cat. He succeeded in invading the cat's psyche but he couldn't get out. After trying for several minutes he decided that me as the original had to do something about it. But at the time I was at the academy attending Iruka's class. But in his panic he didn't care about that. He entered our classroom by jumping through the window. With few more jump he reached me and tried talking to me. But all I heard was cat's mewling. The class descended into loud chatter following the cat's entry. After he took his place on my lap, the chattering died down. Though Iruka warned me to not cause any trouble now that there is a cat in my lap. Iruka's lesson that day was on chakra theory. That stuff was already in my knowledge from my extensive reading on the subject, so I wasn't paying any attention to what he was saying. I was engrossed in my diary, scribbling ideas about a novel I am writing. Few moments later the cat pawed at my hand. I got irritated, so I swatted its paw away. Few moments later it grabbed my finger and pulled. Being curious about the cat's behavior I looked over at it. I saw the cat sitting beside an open notebook. There, on the page, were 3 uppercase letters in English.

 **I M U**

The letters were scratched on the page. No doubt the cat's doing. I scowled at the cat in irritation, not realizing how a cat can write English letters. But the cat raised its paw at me, and then placed it over its chest. It repeated the task few more times.

Then it clicked.

I M U. _I am you_.

I activated sensing technique and scanned the cat over. There, in its head' I sensed a fragment of my chakra. I placed a finger over the point where the chakra fragment felt nearest. I was sweating from excitement and worry as I pushed my chakra into the cat's head. My whole body was trembling. A small mistake and the cat would die at my hand. The prospect of killing an animal that didn't do anything to me and I wasn't planning on eating didn't appeal to. The whole time the cat stayed motionless. Finally my chakra reached the fragmented consciousness and grabbed it. When I retracted the chakra from its head successfully the fear and panic the separated consciousness lived through flowed into me.

' _Maybe this is what would've felt like if I could warg into animals.'_ Was the thought that passed through me. I distinctly remembered that Ino did something similar while looking for the Zombie Duo of Akatsuki after Asuma's death.

I noted to myself to practice this jutsu more and take advantage of the failure. Thus a lemon turned into lemonade; failure of one jutsu became my Warging maneuver.

Though, to sweeten the deal for the animals my clones' consciousness invaded, I would provide them with foods that I could spare. That and consciousness fragment never actively tried to take control over their bodies. They only directed the animals to where to go. After getting some food for their work the animals weren't adverse to the suggestions. All the while con-frags would simply sit back and watch through their eyes and listen through their ears. Whenever they thought they had done enough work, they would find me or a clone of me to liberate them.

That's the beginning of my watch-cat squad. There are about 7 cats running around the village, ready to accept the invasion of my consciousness in them. Right now, all of my consciousness carriers were four-footed. I am looking forward to recruiting some winged carriers. I need to look for birds nest in the forest.

 _Hmm, should I look for eagles or owls?_ To tell the truth, I have no reason to find an owl other than name it Hedwig, like dear Harry.

I met Hinata few blocks before I reached the academy. After exchanging greetings, we lapsed into a comfortable silence.

"Hey Hinata," I spoke up a minute later; "can you do me a favor?"

"What can I do for you?" she sounded hopeful. From she said in one of her hospital visit, I remembered that not many people in her clan would trust her do something right; and the things that she could do properly, like cooking, they didn't care about those. That, coupled with her admiration for Naruto, made her hopeful that she was finally being trusted to do something right.

"You see, there is a shop in market district that opened up recently." I started. "They are offering big discounts on their goods. But I am not sure if the owner hates me or not. So I can't get inside the shop. So I was thinking, if I give you the money could you buy a Walkman for me?" then to give her a boost of encouragement, "I will treat you to cinnamon rolls afterward if you want." Sure I could go in there under transformation but this way I can help her gain a measure of confidence, no matter how miniscule.

"Naruto," determination flashed in her eyes. For the promised cinnamon rolls or to prove that she can do it right, I don't know. "Do you have the money right now?"

"Yep." Third day into our training, Jiraiya has given me a frog shaped wallet. He showed me a storage seal etched inside the wallet. That was a good idea. Now all of my money is stored inside the seal while the wallet's inside only holds about 400-600 Ryus.

"Then let's go." She said taking my hand. This act surprised me greatly. Hinata wasn't this confident. At least not shown in the show or manga. She tugged on my arm to follow her. "It's still an hour before class starts. If we go to the market district now, we can double back just in time to attend our class."

After that, I ran after her. As we reached the market district, we ducked into an alley. I unsealed the money from the seal. "Listen there are enough money here to buy a Walkman." I said as I handed her the money. "There are 10,000 Ryus here. Ask them if they have small cameras. If the money covers the price then buy one, okay?"

"Okay." She replied with a nod and made a beeline to the shop.

I did a transformation after she was gone and went to a pastry shop nearby that I knew sold cinnamon rolls. Just to speed things up. I bought 2 dozens of cinnamon rolls and sealed them into the scroll for food. I returned to the previous alley and waited for Hinata to come out of the shop. When she returned with a Walkman and a small camera, we had about 20 minutes before class starts, not enough time to get inside classroom on time.

' _Looks like I am going to use another jutsu taken from Fu.'_ I thought to myself as I took the devices and the extra money from Hinata and put in my backpack and wallet respectively.

"Naruto, hurry up. We are going to be late for our class." She said impatiently.

"Don't worry, Hinata." I assured her. "I know a faster way to get to the Academy. Though; it might be a little uncomfortable for you after we get there."

"Then do it." she sounded relieved. Likely she didn't want her father or worse yet, the elders of her clan to know that she was late for her class.

"Okay," I crouched down in front of her. "Hop on."

"P-Piggyback?" I looked back hearing her stutter. And yes, she was blushing and poking her fingers together.

"We have to be in contact with each other for both of us to get there together." I explained. "Just hop on and I will do the rest." I urged her.

"Okay." She took a deep breath and hopped on my back hesitantly.

Taking a deep breath, I sent chakra to my limbs. Molding them the right way and preparing them at right angle, I let it out at a quick burst of body flicker after the right set of handseals. When the jutsu wore off, I repeated the process again.

Unlike Mind Transfer Jutsu, which one of my shadow clone decided try on a whim, training in this jutsu ASAP was decided as soon as list of salvaged jutsu was completed. My shadow clones had a better luck with this one too. Though, being dragged by Jiraiya via body flicker every morning and the subsequent emptying of stomach was a good motivator in its training. It took 2 days to get the hang of this jutsu. I got this jutsu down 5 days and 200 shadow clones later.

4 minutes of continuous body flicker later, we reached the academy. I set Hinata down on the ground. I caught her immediately after seeing her wobble few steps. It took few more seconds for her to get over her nausea and regain her footing. And she didn't puke like I did at my first experience with this jutsu.

OxoxO

"Okay, people," I addressed to my friends assembled in front of me. "our first official meeting for Project Tanabata is a go." We gathered at my apartment after academy to discuss our strategy for the festival. I already thought about some things.

"Naruto," Hinata asked, a bit concerned, "Did you take the board from the academy?" she was referring to the blackboard I was standing beside. On it was, 'Project Tanabata' was written.

"Oh, don't worry about it." I waved my hand at her concern. "The thing was broken and ready to go to dustbin tomorrow. I just took it off their hands. Iruka-sensei didn't mind. So it's not stealing."

"That's good to know. By the way Naruto, did you manage to get permission for our stall?" Kiba asked.

"That I did." I replied. "Last night the old man came to visit me. I told him about our plan to open up a stall in the festival. He consented to allow us a big space and since almost all of us in our endeavor are from one clan or another, he would charge almost little to nothing. I had to haggle for the space though. In the end, he agreed to allow us 25 feet by 30 feet space."

"That's a large space for a stall you know." Chouji said. "Weren't we going to just sell your sweets?"

"Well, sweets aren't the only food I can make. So why not put some of them on the menu." I replied. "And for advance advertisement, how about I make some of them and you take them to your clans as free samples?"

"That's a good way to advertise early." Shikamaru started at his drawling tone. "Now first we need to fix a budget. How much money can we pool in?"

"My orphan stipend for one month. That's about 40,000 Ryus." I said as I wrote my name on the board and 40,000 beside it.

"I have savings of about 30,000." Hinata said after me. I wrote her name and her contribution under mine.

"Um, guys," Chouji rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I don't think I can contribute much money, but dad said he can get us discounts on the ingredients."

"That's good." Kiba said. "Between less charge for the space and those discounts, we are already saving money. I asked mum for 30,000 but she said she will give me 20,000. And I have some pocket money saved. So in total, I can pool 26,000 Ryus."

"My father agreed to allow me 20,000 Ryus to invest in our venture." Oops, we all forgot that Shino was between us. To be fair, it's his fault. That guy doesn't make any sound. I suspect you could even hear his breathing.

"Hey Shino," Kiba yelped in surprise. "when did you get here?" huh, very subtle.

"I came here with all of you." Shino's voice was monotonous but his kikaichus were buzzing in irritation. "I was here from the beginning."

"You need to turn off your stealth mode when you are among friends, y'know." I told Shino. To which, he just adjusted his sunglass. "And, Shikamaru?"

"46,000." The pineapple-head's short answer surprised me. The kid is investing more money than all of us and I can invest that much because I don't have to pay rent and 2 months' orphan stipend was fairly untouched as I am still running on the stipend Naruto received before my reawakening. Which means-

"Are you too lazy to spend your pocket-money?" I couldn't help but ask.

The lazy-ass just rolled his eyes at my question. "So we have in total 162,000 Ryus as cash capital. Now we need to find a way to attract people."

"To do that," I started, "you guys won't tell anyone that I am cooking the foods. That would be the fastest way to lose customer. They will think that I am playing a prank or something."

"Then how are you going to attract customers?" Kiba asked.

To answer his question, I put my hands in a cross seal. "With their help." With a large puff of smoke, shadow clones transformed into various female characters from manga and anime wearing maid costume appeared among us.

OxoxO

AN: So how did you like my use of Yamanaka jutsu? Leave a review and let me know.

On a sidenote, Welcomed Second Chance has reached 100 favorites milestone today! YAYYYYYYY!

Now on to reply to some reviews

Lazymanjones96: And here is more.

adislt: I am sorry to say that I wouldn't touch this concept either. I really don't want to write about something I know nothing about.

Guest: SI will meet the teacher….. eventually.

Alfonse: And it passed.


	8. Two Teachers

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.**

OxoxO

"I see you are enjoying your ramen." I turned at the familiar voice. Iruka moved to take a seat on a stool beside mine. He looked tired and exhausted. "One bowl of miso ramen please." He ordered.

"You look very tired." I commented on his appearance. "Did you train for a long time?" that wouldn't be a surprise. Today was Sunday. Academy instructors normally train longer than usual this day of the week.

"No, I was up all night evaluating test papers."

"How did I do?"

"You did great. Though, you'll have to wait to know your marks."

"I don't mind the waiting." I replied. "So did you find something funny in any of those answer sheets?"

"I guess you could call them funny." A tired sigh escaped through his mouth. "But when I read those answer, I feel like I failed as a teacher."

"Hey, you are not a bad teacher." I tried to cheer him up. "After all, no other teachers go into as much details as you do." Which was true. Other teachers wouldn't bother talking about something on the curriculum outside textbook except for maybe one or two examples. But Iruka always went into details to cover all the WH-questions regarding a topic, his thought and experience included. In fact, his going into detail was the main reason why students found his class boring.

"That's the thing." Iruka snapped his chopsticks when his order arrived. He started to stir the noodles. "I think, many students don't get all the details, even after review class. That's why majority of them can't put them on paper and makes up something ridiculous to fill the pages." He stopped stirring and let out another sigh. "I wish my chakra reserve was a bit bigger. Then I could've made shadow clones like you to give some of those students one-to-one lessons."

That surprised me. Every ninja in Leaf village knew about shadow clone jutsu being a high level kinjutsu. Not even all the jonin could perform the jutsu because of chakra cost. To my knowledge, this jutsu was used only in combat and recon purpose and the only person to use this jutsu for training purpose in canon was Naruto. This was certainly the first time I am hearing about someone wishing to use this jutsu for teaching. Too bad, Iruka's reserve wasn't big enough to utilize the jutsu. Although there is a way around that problem.

"Sensei, do you know water clone jutsu?" I asked the scarred man.

"I have the instruction scroll for the jutsu but haven't gotten around learning it yet." He answered after downing his noodles. "Why?"

"Well, if you can learn the water clone jutsu, you might not need to go for the shadow clone jutsu." I started my explanation after that. I told him all about how I used my water clones at first. Several minutes and a bowl of ramen later, I finished my explanation. Iruka was awed at my idea.

"Naruto, have you registered your method to ninjutsu records?" he asked.

"Not really," I shrugged. I didn't know people needed to register their ninjutsu. "Aren't ninjutsu supposed to be secrets?"

"That's true. But since the jutsus required for your method aren't any secret jutsu, I think it wouldn't do anyone harm to register it. And of course, you might receive a hefty sum of money from the village depending on how beneficial it might be for the village." My ears perked up at the mention of money. Don't get me wrong, I am not greedy for money and I have enough to sustain myself comfortably for a month. But it wouldn't hurt anyone to have some extra cash.

"That's good to know. I could use some extra money." I said as I stirred the noodles in my bowl. "But sensei, I don't know anything about the registration process."

Iruka chuckled at that. "You don't have to worry about that. I know people who work in office related to this. I will take care of it." he answered with a smile. "Since you gave a solution for a problem of mine, I owe you. Is there something I can do for you to return the favor?" he asked sincerely.

I was ready to wave off his concern but then I remembered Iruka has stopped avoiding Naruto recently. He is still feeling somewhat guilty for ignoring the boy. So he is trying any way to make it up to him. Even though I am not the real Naruto, I can't refuse the man's offer that will give him peace of his mind.

 _But what can I ask him to do for me? Hmmm…. Aha!_ "I think there is one thing you can help me with." I said as I rubbed my chin. Taking my hands in front of my mouth, I neared his ear. He too leaned his head toward me. "Sensei, don't freak out." He nodded. "I am writing a novel. I am almost finished but not really sure about spelling and all. So, would you like to proofread it?"

Iruka blinked his eyes and opened mouth a tad; shock was written all over his face. "You are writing a novel?" he asked moments of silence later. I gave him a nod while smiling. He dragged his hand over his face. "You are a well of hidden talents I see."

I wouldn't say that is a talent. I am just putting a movie with a unique concept on papers. Though if this one is successful; I might try rewriting popular novels from _back home_ my way. There was an A Song of Ice and Fire fanfiction I was planning on writing. And this time it's gonna be the original. _Huh, take that Martin, I am writing stealing your concept but there is nothing you can do about it._

A shake on my shoulder brought me out of my daydream. "Sorry sensei, I zoned out a little. You were saying something?"

"I said I will do the proofreading. I want an autographed copy when it gets published though." Iruka was encouraging me.

"Thanks for agreeing, sensei. I will bring it to you when it's complete." I said as I left my bill on the counter and slipped off my seat.

"I am looking forward to reading your novel." Iruka said a bit loudly behind me. Well, that's one less work. If Iruka didn't volunteer for the work, then my best options would've been Jiraiya since he has experience in writing novels. But I didn't trust that old perv to slip in some _extra_ -romantic scene in every other page there.

My musing came to a stop when I bumped into someone. I looked up to apologize to the person I bumped into; but after seeing the hateful look on his face, my apology died down before leaving my mouth. I looked around to the people around us were also glaring at me. Setting my lips in a thin line, I retrieved the item Hinata helped me make for this kind of situation where everyone was glaring at me. I draped the poncho over my shoulder and started to walk away. The flabbergasted look on their faces was enough to lighten up my mood.

You might be thinking what's so special about that piece of cloth. Well, the poncho was white. On it, several colorful pieces of clothes in the shape of hand showing middle finger were stitched on. I wanted to show them middle-fingers since the day I found myself in this world. Problem is when I look back at them, they turn their head elsewhere. But now every time they glare at me, one of the many middle fingers will glare back at them. It felt really satisfying to see the look on their faces. Some of the fics that I read, the writers stated that the reason Naruto wore his orange eyesore of a jumpsuit was because so that people wouldn't look at him for too long. But bright orange isn't my color, so I had to make do with the special poncho.

' _Now let's see how long you can glare at me._ ' I thought to myself as I made my way to Aburame compound. After the meeting 2 days ago, we decided on our roles in our business venture and other things. Since my apartment wasn't big enough for large scale cooking and we wanted to keep the cooking process a secret; Aburame compound was chosen as the place of our cooking. There was benefit in cooking there. Shino assured us that he would leave a sizable portion of his kikaichus to guard our produce from other insects. His didn't oppose the idea of cooking in his ground. He simply showed us a spot in a secluded corner of his compound and instructed us to do our cooking there. On a plus side, there was a cave nearby where we can keep the sweets for cooling. Today we are gathering to bring our instruments and setup the place for our cooking.

Halfway to the Aburame compound, I received memory from one of the shadow clones. It took a moment for me to process the information that was transmitted to me. A grin crossed my face after realizing the implication of it.

"Infiltrating Danzo's base, successful." I said to myself in hushed to tone. Who knows who might be stalking me at this moment? "You will rue the day you decided to set your eyes on me. By any means, I will collect a drop of your blood. Then I will hire Hidan to ingest that. Then I will have him sit inside his voodoo circle naked and dump a whole crate of itching powder on him. Just you wait." I let out evil laugh at the end of my promise.

 _Hmm, if Hidan takes laxatives, would it affect the cursed person? Eh, I will find out when I do it._

OxoxO

"So what are you gonna teach me today?" I asked Jiraiya after finishing the morning warm-up.

"Today I am going to teach you your first offensive jutsu." He said with a sagely nod. "However, you are not going to learn this jutsu with your real body. It's a suicidal jutsu that will burn yourself from inside out if you do so." He threw a scroll to me as he finished his answer.

"Shadow Clone Explosion." I read the name of the jutsu after opening the scroll. Wasn't it one of the jutsu Itachi used? _Eh, who cares? My Aburame maneuver will work perfectly with this jutsu._

There was a warning note at the end of the scroll. It said ' **Until the user of the jutsu doesn't have full mastery of it, it's advised to try with only one clone each time and not try again until memory backlash wears off.** ' Oh yeah, unless the shadow clone uses up all his reserve for the explosion, surplus chakra will return to the user. Which means user will feel being burnt from inside. A really, really horrible experience that would be.

"I suddenly don't feel like trying this jutsu now." I said as I rolled the scroll and threw it back at Jiraiya.

Jiraiya let out a hearty laugh at my response after reading the scroll. "I wouldn't mind if you are not ready right now. But kid, you are going to need jutsu like this someday."

"Oh forgive me if I don't want to feel like there is lava under my skin." I shot back.

"Come on kid; give it a try at least." He let out a huff at my impassive stare. "Okay, tell you what; if you use 10 clones for your jutsu now, I will take you to lunch."

"Where will you take me for lunch?" I asked. "Because not many place in the village will let me in."

"You don't have to worry about the place. Just try the jutsu 10 times and we will move onto other things."

Letting out a long sigh I conjured my fingers into cross seal and made a shadow clone. The clone knew his instruction, so he moved to a safe distance and went through the process of performing that jutsu. I mentally prepared myself to receive the me—

"AAAH" I said through gritted teeth after the clone exploded. "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" I was expecting the pain to come into my chest area but the pain started from my stomach. Memory of extreme heat was so intense that I ran to my backpack and poured all the water inside it to my mouth. I felt like I need drink a whole lake to ward off the heat. _Better yet, I think I need to inject cold water through every pore on my skin._ Then as suddenly the pain came, it was gone in an instant. But the experience left me panting on the ground.

"You okay kid?" Jiraiya asked as he knelt beside me.

"You better take me to nice restaurant for putting me through this." I replied as I got my panting under control. _And don't worry about my retaliation. It's coming your way._

Closing my eyes, I went over the memory relay from the clone. My first mistake in trying this jutsu was making the clone with too much chakra, about 5% of my reserve. So I will have to start with minimum chakra to create clones. Putting my fingers in cross seal again, I waited for chakra to amass inside me and then lessened the amount as much as I thought would be enough to make an autonomous clone. After that, the jutsu was executed. The clone popped beside me.

The clone went through the instruction just like his predecessor did. This time the returning chakra was less in amount and the backlash was somewhat tolerable, like being under blanket in summer. The explosion wasn't big like before. That's not a problem for now. I will have to gradually crank up chakra amount for explosion and improve control over it to not experience the vicious backlash.

"Which chakra control exercise do you think would help me for the chakra manipulation part of this jutsu?" I asked Jiraiya before making the third clone.

"I can't say for sure." He rubbed chin for a moment. "I think I will need to take a look at the scroll I gave you. There has to be something like that on that scroll."

Hearing this, I brought out the notebook I copied the scroll in. "Which ones do you think I need to master?" I asked showing him the index. There were 40 chakra control exercises in the scroll he provided.

"Are these the ones you mastered?" Jiraiya asked, holding the index page to me. his pointer was tapping on an exercise that was ticked.

"More or less." I answered. "I got the hang of some them pretty quickly. So I am trying them in different ways."

"How differently?"

"Like trying to walk on oil-drenched tree and walking on mud."

Jiraiya was amused at my reply. "I get the mud walking, since sometime you will need to run in rain and flooded areas. But why oil-drenched tree?" he paused for a bit. Then he asked, "Better yet, where did you even get that much oil?"

"To answer your first question, there used to be a math problem. A monkey climbs an oil-drenched bamboo of a certain length. He climbs 3 feet one second and slips 2 feet next. How long the monkey will need to reach the top?"

' _ **I will ask Four Tails for answer when I see him next.'**_

' _You are an ass, Ginji.'_

' _ **Don't call me Ginji.'**_

' _Sure. You are an ass, Shiku.'_

"And you thought try that for just to solve a math problem? Where did you even get that much oil?"

"Don't give that look. In some middle-age castles, defenders would pour boiling oil on enemies to stop them from scaling walls. Who can say some ninjas won't do that? For me, it was an important thing to learn." I answered. "As for the oil, they were date expired. They were going to be thrown away anyway. So why not use them for something better."

Jiraiya huffed at my response and took another look over the index. "Here," he produced a pencil from somewhere and marked the necessary exercises. "These 4 will come in handy to master this jutsu."

I looked over the 3 exercises after taking notebook from him. ' _Hmm, Leaf Rotation, Opposite Directions Leaf Rotation, Omni-direction Leaf Rotaion and Chakra Compression._ ' 3 exercises for chakra rotation and 1 for chakra compression. Make sense. Shadow Clone Explosion was all about rotating chakra in every direction and compressing it tighter and tighter until it explo….

' _Wait, wait._ ' I checked the names of the exercises. ' _Rotation, compression and all the chakra given to the clone._ ' The realization dawned on me. _'He is preparing me for Rasengan._ '

Rasengan was hard jutsu to learn because of 2 factors if my theory about this jutsu is correct. One, amount of chakra and two, external chakra manipulation. First factor was something that limits rasengan's size and its consecutive use. Most ninjas above jonin level certainly have reserve for this jutsu. Problem starts with chakra manipulation part.

All the jutsus that I have seen throughout the series, I can't remember how many of them needed chakra to be manipulated outside the body. Almost all the ninjutsu that I have seen, chakra was manipulated internally and then let loose. But in case of Rasengan, chakra is pushed outside and manipulated externally. My study in chakra theory says that this particular way of chakra manipulation requires large amount of chakra and extreme focus. However ninjas were too reliant on handseals to manipulate chakra for them and after a point, they become ingrained in their muscle memory. That's why very few ninjas can manipulate chakra, other than chakra flow exercises, without handseals.

 _And Shadow Clone Explosion doesn't need handseals either._

OxoxO

AN: I wanted to write a bit more of Iruka-Naruto interaction. Compared to last chapter, this one became a bit dull but I hope the early update makes up for it. So what do you think? Leave a review and let me know.

 **Answer to Reviews:**

 **adislt** **:** I have read few fics where this matter is touched. Like, _Healing the Sun_ and _Shinobi Institute of Performance Analysis_. In my opinion, ninjas should be required to do mandatory regular monthly mental check-up, especially after having their first kill, loss and disastrous missions. As for Sasuke, I think as a child, he wasn't very talkative even before massacre. And not many people would want to talk about their family being murdered at the hand of someone close to them.

 **ItsMeMarissaaa** **:** Thanks for your confession; my story will never forget it.

 **xhope14x** **:** the longer a chapter goes, the worse my writing becomes. So, there.

 **Chase Network** **:** There is a reason for Hinata's determined nature and her not fainting in close proximity of Naruto. It will take a while to write about that.

 **Dark and Chaotic** **:** Thanks for the complement. Kakashi's insight is not actually that far in the story. I thought up the scenario. It's just waiting to be typed.

 **arinst2305** **:** Thanks for the boost, man… sorry, I didn't just assume your gender.

 **Slime Slayer** **:** I like different ways of using power. My SI might become OP but I assure you it won't be overnight.


	9. NOT The Last Supper

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.**

 **Response to Reviws:**

 **PrototypeSaber15** **:** let's leave the matter for later when SI is a bit older (physically).

 **Chase Network** **:** Sorry for the misunderstanding bro. Anyway, the SI is aware of Naruto canon-verse from ch 02. And I think the kind of SI story you are looking for would be hard to find. These kind of SI would be hard to write because lack of plot. On the other hand the writer has free reign to make up plot. You can try _Sanitize_ by Sage Thrasher.

On the matter of orange clothe, yes almost 90% fics that mentions this issue goes with shopkeeper conspiracy. But why _only_ orange? I mean there are other eyesore colors as bad as neon orange. Child Naruto used wear clothes of different colors in flashback. So I don't think it was a matter with shopkeepers and Canon never clarified why he chose to wear it.

 **Xiu:** Thanks for your encouragement. I hope this chapter was to your liking.

 **adislt** **:** It will take A WHILE. So hold on tight.

 **Pouyan** **:** I am sorry you felt that way. But I assure you this story's potential wouldn't be wasted.

 **YamiSlade** **:** Thanks for the complement man.

 **Dark and Chaotic** **:** My Naruto SI is a jumbled mess and will that way for a little bit longer. Even then his issues wouldn't be solved completely. I plan on revealing more about his past in the future stories. For now, he is just keeping himself distracted anyway he can.

Anyway, I didn't really get the White Fang- Geralt of Rivia(Witcher) hint.

 **Slime Slayer** **:** I intend to do that whole-heartedly.

 **Hitoshi075** **:**

[6] good for Hiruzen, the SI is honest. And now Hiruzen knows how to keep him loyal. He just have to keep an eye out so that no one (*cough*Danzo* cough *) fucks things up.

[7] Oh god! How do you know me so well?

[8] Hope you liked this chapter.

 **senjumenma** **:**

[6] Absolutely! As for the asshole's just read the story of Alexander.

[7] I know man. But to be fair not most(if not all) other girls are busy to catch sasuke's attention.

[8] Rijuan's bluntness will make him clash with Danzo sooner or later. As for Kurama's friendliness, Rijuan did spent a lot of time talking to/with Kurama in his comatose state. So there.

 **lovleydragonfly** **:** Hope you liked it.

 **Argilac the Arrogant** **:**

[1] Well there is Dracula's impalement but I don't have the stomach to write it.

[2] I am not going to say anything on the matter.

[3] Of course, it's going to be a part of SI's backstory that will come to light in bits and pieces.

[4] The SI is a closet perv who doesn't deny his flaw. So I am sure not many girls are going to be interested in him.

[5] I thought about using CRA but this concept has been used too many times and there are more than one ways to torment Sasuke. And Sakura may or may not do that. Depends on the storyline.

[6] He accepted his role as Naruto but that doesn't exempt him from having his baggage. And I didn't really thought about writing that side story. I will think on it in the future. Problem is most readers on ff are western. So they are going miss a lot of reference.

[7] Thanks. I will find more creative ways to use ninjutsus.

[8] Yes it will be very satisfying if it comes up in the plot.

 **Notice:** If anyone wants to see the special poncho from last chapter then the link below-

www. deviantart [dara-shiko] / [art] / [Special-Poncho-772829786]

Remove extra spaces and third brackets.

OxoxO

"So you are leaving tomorrow, then." Jiraiya looked from the menu in his hand. Naruto was looking over his menu. He was leaving the village tomorrow and he wouldn't return for several months. So he decided to take the blond to dinner.

"Yeah, I am leaving tomorrow." He replied. "Are you gonna miss me?"

"I miss many things." An ambiguous answer but it made Jiraiya feel a warm sensation in his chest even though Naruto didn't look up from his menu and he said that in his usual dry tone.

One of the things Jiraiya learnt observing Naruto from spending last weeks of constant training with the boy, to put it bluntly, he would make an ideal soldier for Danzo if the old war-hawk could, by some miracle, manage to indoctrinate him. He knew about emotions even though most of the time his eyes convey only apathy. Jiraiya is sure that it's not a mask. The boy is too honest to wear one. Like any other kid, he wears his emotions on his sleeves. It's just that, it's hard not to doubt if he is showing genuine emotion when his smile gives off happy vibe but his eyes don't. The classic saying about eye being the window to a person's soul wasn't completely true in this case. One time, he wanted to ask the question but refrained himself. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to know the answer. Knowing Naruto, it would be something unexpected.

"Have you decided what you want to eat?" Jiraiya asked after making his choice on the menu.

Naruto handed him a pencil and his menu. "Can you mark the dishes that have pork in them?"

"You are gonna eat all those dishes?" Jiraiya couldn't help but ask. In one of the letters sensei sent him, he wrote that Naruto liked to eat ramen with extra large pork. Did this one like pork more than Naruto did?

"I never ate pork and I am not gonna change that." _Huh. That makes sense. He wants to know names of dishes that have pork in them if he wants to avoid it._

"You were allergic to pork?" he asked as took the menu and marked the pork dishes.

"No." Naruto took a sip from his water.

"Then why won't you eat pork?"

"There are few reasons." He held one finger. "One, pork wasn't a part of our culture. The only people who ate pork in our country are the aboriginals and they made up less than five percent of our whole population. Secondly, I don't consider them to be healthy meat. They have the shortest digestive system. Which means whatever they eat- and they eat anything- isn't digested properly. In animal body, toxins leave through sweat. Pigs don't sweat which means toxins accumulated in their body stays in their body. And third, my religion forbids its follower to eat pork."

"Your religion forbade its follower to eat pork? What kind of religion forbids people to eat that food?" Pork wasn't anywhere near Jiraiya's most favorite but he hardly met someone who didn't like pork.

"Every religion has something that others find weird." Naruto said as he took his menu from Jiraiya's hand.

"I can attest to that." Jiraiya looked at his old sensei as he approached their table. "Even though I never met any follower of other religion, I did read about a few cults and their ways once."

"Good evening, sensei."

"Good evening, Lord Hokage."

"Good evening my boys. May I join you for dinner?"

"No problem old man. We were just about to order. Why don't you take a look at the menu?"

It took them few more minutes to choose and order their food. After few advices from Hiruzen Naruto ordered gyoden and mushroom soup. Hiruzen ordered his favorite Hijiki and sardine fishballs and Jiraiya ordered katsudon.

"So Naruto boy," Hiruzen started, "would you mind telling us about your faith?"

Jiraiya knew why the old leader was asking Naruto about his religion. Like family, culture and environment; religion is a big factor in a child's upbringing. Even though all the religions and cults he knew of or heard of put an emphasis on living peacefully, there are other thing that they demands from their followers. There is also the fact that how a person interprets a command and what they teach the next generation. If they can get an idea of Naruto's faith, they can have a better understanding of his character and reasoning. After all, religions are sets of rules that a person is indoctrinated to follow from the moment they start understanding everything around them and they keep following it until they die.

"It's a monotheistic faith and there is no aspect of life that hasn't been discussed in it." Naruto said as he picked up a strip of beef.

"Even marriage life?" it wasn't exact wording of what Jiraiya wanted to tease the boy with when he said ' _there is no aspect of life that hasn't been discussed in it_ ', but he chose to hold his tongue. Religion is a very sensitive topic and making fun of it can get him on the boy's bad side at best. This wasn't what he intends at the moment.

"There is no foundation that has been built in our faith more loved by God Almighty than marriage." Jiraiya felt embarrassed at the answer. "I know what you really wanted to ask." Naruto said looking at him. Thankfully there is no irritation or disproval in his tone. "There is a prayer that spouse are advised to say before procreating so that any child born from that union would have good qualities."

 _Say what! What kind religion has specific prayer for that!?_ He looked over at his mentor who was also equally dumbfounded if unmoving chopsticks in Hiruzen's hand indicated anything.

"Your religion is really weird." He had to say it out loud.

"Males are also required to cut off their foreskin." Jiraiya blanched at the casual statement. Thank the gods, he wasn't drinking anything. He would've spewed them out no doubt.

"Did you…" Hiruzen couldn't finish his question but Jiraiya knew what he wanted to ask.

"When I was 7." How is the brat saying this without cringing? "My grandpa held a moderate ceremony for that occasion. All my relatives were invited. The person doing the job was an expert. He used local anesthetic before proceeding. It took only 3 minutes for cutting and bandaging and I didn't feel a thing. I had to stay in bed for next week though. Got lots of gift from that ceremony too. I remember one of my uncles gave me a set of children science book." The brat let out a long sigh with a happy smile. "Ahh, good old days!" And with the last comment Jiraiya lost his appetite. "Hmm, why did you guys stop eating? Your foods are getting cold."

"Naruto are you planning on preaching your religion in this world?" Hiruzen asked professionally.

 _'_ _Hearing the brat describe his genital mutilation ritual is disturbing enough. There is no need to see one in person, thank you very much._ _'_ Then a horrifying thought dawned on Jiraiya. _'_ _Oh no, I am going to be invited when this brat have his brat cut!_ _'_

"Not really. I mean I can't go around preaching my faith when there are so many things I myself don't follow." That's good to know.

"For example?"

"To not look at women who aren't my wife with indecent intent." Jiraiya couldn't refrain from giving a shit-eating grin. Anymore, and his face would be split in half. Knowing the boy has no issue with perversion is one thing and hearing him admit to being a pervert is another.

"And you don't see anything wrong with it?"

"Oh, I know it is not right and I am going to be burned in hellfire for it. But there are times when I can't stop the urge to look even after trying not to. It would sound extremely cheesy, but I know I am going to stop when I find a woman who can keep my gaze on her without dropping a single inch of clothing. When I find her, I will do my absolute best to win her heart and her hand in marriage. Then shower her with love and adoration until I take my last breath."

 _That.. that's a damn good line!_ As if on autopilot, Jiraiya unsealed his notepad and pencil and scribbled his pseudo-godson's quote for later use.

 _Hmm, this quote gives me an idea. A lonely hero looking for a woman to love and cherish with all his heart. But his quest fails when the hero sacrifices himself to save his country and continues his quest in his next life._ Jiraiya grin widened even more, if that was even possible. _This brat is a goldmine for my inspiration._

"Jiraiya, are you going to use his speech in your book?"

"You bet I would." Ideas were already popping in his head. His hand scribbled them furiously on paper before he forgets.

"Speaking of novels," Naruto brought out a storage scroll from his pouch that Jiraiya gave him few days after he started training the boy. He unsealed a bundle of paper and handed it to him. "Do you think you can show this to some publishers?"

Jiraiya took bundle. On front page, the words ' **Upside Down** ' were written in kanji. "You wrote a novel?"

"It was a good movie." The brat ate another strip of beef as he said it like there is nothing wrong with shamelessly admitting plagiarism. "There is no one here to sue me for stealing his idea."

Jiraiya flipped to the first page and started reading.

 _The universe..._

 _So full of wonders..._

 _I could spend hours and hours looking up at the sky. So many stars, so many mysteries..._

 _And there's one very special star that makes me think of one very special person. Now let me tell you my story. At the dawn of time, from the chaos, came an exception. One of the most mysterious secrets of the universe._

 _You see, I come from that very mysterious and unique place. We are the only known solar system with double gravity. Two twin planets whirling together around one sun but each with its own and opposite gravity. Now, in our world it's possible to fall up and to rise down. But... my story, it's about love._

 _Some people say that true lovers are one soul that is separated when it's born. And those two halves will always yearn to find their way back together._

So far, Jiraiya liked what he read. It would give him some entertainment on the road at least. He is going to meet his publisher after he finished writing next installment of Make Out series. He will put good words for his pseudo-godson.

"I like what you wrote so far. I think my publisher might like your story too. So don't worry about it."

"Do you think you can write an extra-romantic scene? I marked the point where that scene might be needed." Jiraiya's chest bubbled with pride at Naruto's question. "Granted this story is complete even without that kind of scene; but it would be too much to hope for that you wouldn't slip a scene like that on your own accord." His pride deflated as he heard how much the boy trusted him. Naruto looked at him with his usual apathetic eyes and without changing his flat tone he said, "If this book get published and I see more than one extra-romantic scene in it, I will make sure that you have the worst case of erectile dysfunction for the rest of your life." Giving him a narrow-eyed look for a full 5 seconds, he turned his attention back to his gyuden. "Not that you will suffer for long. I bet you will die from gonorrhea or some other STD."

"Naruto, are you threatening my shinobi?" Hiruzen asked in an amused voice.

"He wouldn't need that part of his body to be functional to remain a shinobi." With that he finished his gyuden and moved on to mushroom soup. "By the way, I made a copy for you too. I didn't know you would come to have dinner with us. Otherwise I would've brought your copy with me."

"Why don't you bring that copy to my home tomorrow before 8 in the morning? We could have breakfast together before I go to my office.

"Fine by me. I would never turn down an invitation."

"Also I have something to show you."

"You do?" there was no surprise in his voice but his question implied that. "Can you tell me about it now or is it a surprise?"

"Let's go with surprise." Hiruzen replied. "I can tell you now but I think it would be better if I showed you." Naruto looked at him with what seemed to be an unasked question. "All I am saying, it is an opportunity for you and I believe you would be happy to take it." Naruto gave him a nod and returned to his soup.

Rest of the dinner passed in a comfortable silence with Jiraiya and Hiruzen speaking occasionally. After finishing their dinner, they ordered tea for their drink. Elder males asked for green tea while Naruto asked for mint tea. While they were drinking, a thought crossed Jiraiya's mind.

"Naruto, did the priests of your faith know how to make tags to repel or trap spirits?"

"Yep. That and a whole lot of talismans for various purposes from saving crops from bad harvest to put curse on your enemy."

"By any chance, do you know the method they used to write those?"

"I have an idea about their methods." Naruto replied with a nod. "Why?"

"I think they might help you in learning sealing jutsu." Jiraiya was going to continue more but he stopped as Naruto shook his head side-to-side.

"That's not going to help me in any way." The waiter brought their tea at that moment. Naruto started stirring his tea without any further explanation. And so he isn't going to tell anything else.

"Can you tell us why?" Hiruzen asked the pseudo-child.

"Language barrier and writing system." Naruto took a sip of his tea as he started what two elder males could tell an elaborate explanation. "First of all, the priests of our faith wrote talisman or charms using verses from our holy scripture and it was written in a foreign language. Most of them had the whole scripture memorized. That's the language barrier for me. As for the writing system, although it is similar to writing kanas, problem starts with calligraphy styles. I don't know much about nihongo calligraphy style. So far only impression I got is that, as long as you can write a symbol perfectly and cleanly you are doing great. This is also the case with calligraphy from that language. However often time, calligraphy artists would try to make an image with the word or sentence they are working. Here let me show you." He brought out a notebook and pencil from his back pouch and started writing on it. "This word mean vortex." Naruto poked his pencil at the word after he wrote the word. "With a good script, precise brushstrokes and outlining, this word could be a good piece of art. But what if, I want the word to scream its meaning for anyone who looks at it? I lengthen the edges and keep wounding them as long as any letters can't be mistaken for another letter." Underneath the word, Naruto wrote it for a second time and stretched tips and edges of every letters until the word became a simple image of a vortex.

"That's an interesting concept for calligraphy." Jiraiya's eyes, Hiruzen noted, were contained excitement and eagerness. If this way of calligraphy could be incorporated with sealing, then it would be possible to hide a seal's purpose and confuse anyone trying to decipher as one word can be turned into several images. "You aren't a master of this art by any chance though, are you?"

"Not even a run-off-the-mill calligraphy artist." The young blonde replied as he put away his notebook and pencil. "I only liked to watch calligraphies from time to time."

"But still, to think a word can be turned into image?" Jiraiya was impressed with what Naruto showed him. "Alright, we will go over this concept after you have good enough grasp on kanji. Now, what about the methods to writing talismans?"

"Depending on the purpose of a talisman, a priest would have to write one or number of verses on paper in a specific design and not a single letter can be miswritten. That's the first method. For the second method, you have to know numerical value of all the letters of that alphabet. Then add the values of the letters present in the verses necessary. Then write the totals in grids on paper. Finally to make sure it doesn't clash with any other verse of the holy text, they would add a hint, most likely the first verse they used in for writing that talisman."

The second method was also something new. Maybe he should try to see if he can do anything with this bit of knowledge. But then again, there thousands of kanjis. It would be a drag to equate them to a certain value, so maybe just kanas. There was nothing else the boy can draw inspiration from regarding sealing. He would have to wait for him to learn enough kanjis to start teaching him basics. After he was done with his tea, Naruto bid them goodbye.

"So sensei; we all learn something new every day, eh?"

"That we do." Hiruzen replied as he nursed the second cup of tea lazily. "Did you notice he only gives enough information to get us off his back?"

"I did. But he answers when asked. Problem is, we don't have any source to verify his answers. What really worries me is that he always answers looking straight into your eyes. That coupled with his usual flat tone makes it somewhat harder to figure out if he is lying or not. So far, he had been honest with me." he let out a long sigh. "I think I might need to have a talk with the toad elders about all this." He finished his tea with a long sip.

"You are second guessing your decision?"

"He is a wild card and he can reject us any moment. Can you blame me?" he took a sip from his cup of tea. "So what do you think of his religion?"

"Kind of authoritarian if it had set up prayer for matters of bedroom. From what we know about his view on death, I have a feeling he worships some kind of entity relating to death."

"So what is it that you have for him?" Jiraiya asked his leader and mentor as he drained his cup.

"For a new comer, unknowingly he made a big contribution for our education system. Big enough to consider rewarding him handsomely."

"What did he do?" Jiraiya's interest was piqued.

"He shared his water clone strategy with his academy instructor, who registered the strategy in village archive under Naruto's name. He used the strategy for teaching few days ago. The result was satisfying and he reported this to the headmaster. He saw the merit of this method and presented a formal request to make it a part of our education system. The clan heads have been informed about this. They will convene in a meeting regarding this bill in few days. I have little doubt that anyone is going to oppose. If this bill passes, less of our academy graduates will be cannon fodders."

The ramification of this single change is huge. The result may not be immediate, but this will produce more highly skilled and knowledgeable genins in few years.

OxoxO

"I think I heard you have a grandson." I said as I followed Hiruzen into his study. As he told me last night, I came to his house this morning half an hour before designated time. We had breakfast his daughter-in-law, who I was sure was Konohamaru's mom, cooked. Her cooking was delicious and I enjoyed every bit of it. Not that I would never praise free food. "Is he sick? Cause I thought I would see him in breakfast table."

"He is still a toddler, only four years old." Hiruzen said as he took his seat behind his desk. "I believe you know how much sleep they need, right?"

"At least ten hours if I am not wrong." I looked around his study. It was like any other study seen in movies. The room was neatly furnished with an open window on the wall right to the desk. There was a canvas stand beside the window. Canvas on it had an unfinished calligraphy drawn on it. I took my seat on the chair in front of the desk as my eyes glanced over the collection of books and scrolls organized in the racks. When I faced Hiruzen, I took in the traditional Japanese painting of wave crashing in sea.

"And they are hard to put to sleep if they don't want to."

"Yeah, I feel for new parents." I knew the feeling really well. Both of my cousins were born with strong lungs. When they were born they kept their parents up most of the nights. I was lucky that our rooms had another room between them. Aunty had it somewhat easy with her maternity leave but uncle were ready to fall asleep on dining table in the morning. One time I suggested him to ask paternity leave from his university.

"Did you bring my copy of your novel?"

"Yeah." I retrieved his copy from my back pouch. "I hope my writing is to your liking." He took the book from my hand and opened the first page. He read first few pages before looking at me.

"It's obvious that you are new in writing novels." He said as he put aside the book. "But considering you are still learning our language, I would say it was good."

"Yeah. Even though I retained _his_ understanding of the language; he wasn't a big fan of reading. So I am handicapped in this for some time." It was a good thing that I was tried learning Japanese previously and had a basic understanding because of it. Naruto's understanding of it suffered because barely anyone talked to him. It was a blessing when among the piles of information I looted from Fu, I also got his knowledge of language and writing system. That was good enough head-start to practice reading with help of dictionary. "Fortunately for me, shadow clones are also useful in digesting dictionary."

"That, it certainly is. I am glad that you found a way to get around the drawback from keeping shadow clones active for so long." He opened a drawer and brought out an envelope and a scroll. "Read the letter." He said after placing them on the table. "I am very much sure you will be happy after reading it."

The envelope was already opened. I am sure the letter wasn't addressed to me. all the people I knew are here in the village or in another part of the universe. First group didn't have a reason to send me a letter and the other group didn't have any way to do that. I unfolded the letter.

 _Lord Hiruzen,_

 _I hope my letter finds you in good health._

 _I received your recommendation regarding Hidden Leaf shinobis who intends to pursue higher education. All 14 of them have been accepted in distance learning program of various schools of Kin-en University. They will receive their curriculum and booklists from their respective schools very soon._

 _However, your request to enroll Naruto Uzumaki in engineering school as a regular student has been a bit tricky because of his age. Although, Kin-en University often accepts shinobi students at the age of 14; Naruto Uzumaki being an 8 years old, the authority has been lukewarm about extending the same generosity toward him. But after having a lengthy conversation with the director of engineering school, he agreed to accept him as a regular student on the condition that Naruto Uzumaki has to pass an evaluation test. The arrangement has been made. I will escort an overseer of director's choosing to Hidden Leaf village in 2 weeks' time. He will conduct the test and evaluate the answer. Keep in mind, if he passes the test, he will have move to Kin-en to start attending his classes in September. Since there isn't any housing facility for any shinobi and shinobi-in-training provided by university; Naruto Uzumaki will be responsible for finding his lodging._

 _With this letter, I have attached the list of resources that would be helpful for the young man. I wish him success in his upcoming test._

 _Yours truly_

 _Akimitsu Sarutobi_

A great sense of gratitude washed over me when I finished the letter. The last time I was this much happy was when our whole gang got accepted into engineering school. All of us were so happy because we were together since elementary and we didn't have to go separate ways for college.

"I have already made arrangement for your stay in the capital." I looked over at Hiruzen in a happy daze. "My son Asuma is in the Twelve Ninja Guardian. For the duration of your stay in Kin-en, you will stay with him in Royal Army barrack. He will take over your shinobi training there and Jiraiya will visit you from time to time."

"I am, I am really grateful for you did." No matter how much I tried, there was no way I could suppress my happiness at the moment. "But would you tell me why? This ought to be more than just fulfilling a boy's wish."

"If we are talking about practicality, I want a capable engineer in-charge of this village's infrastructure depending on your choice of program." Hiruzen said with a kind smile. "Although, it was Inoichi who suggested it. He said it would be better if you get this out of your system."

"And if possible, then prepare a shinobi for industrial espionage." Hiruzen was surprised. I don't know if he thought about it or not, I am willing to take any assignment like this. If I am lucky, I will get my hands on something that will make me rich. I am not being greedy in any way. I am just looking out for any chance to make my life more comfortable. "Don't be surprised. It isn't a new concept to me."

The first time I learned about industrial espionage was from a book named ' **I Was A KGB Agent'**. According to the writer, who was a fugitive from Soviet Union and rogue KGB agent, one such mission to Japan brought enough fund for KGB to be run for a decade. This became such nuisance that around 2009 or 2010 I am not really sure, I German chemical manufacturing company banned people from bringing cellphone to any kind of meeting.

But back to the present, this was a chance for me to enjoy a life I was going to get. By doing this for me, Hiruzen has earned my trust and I am going to show it to him.

"Could you please come and stand here for a moment." Hiruzen was confused as to why I was requesting such of him. If I was a child, both physically and mentally, then he would've expected me to hug him. But I wasn't.

When he came around the desk and stood in front of me; I stood up from my seat. Then I knelt to him. I touched both of his feet with my right palm. After that I retracted my hand and I placed the palm over my chest first, then I kissed my palm and caressed my. All the while I kept my head lowered.

"It's the highest sign of honor and gratitude anyone can show to his elderly in my past culture." I told him after I stood up. In our language, it is called Kadam-busi, roughly translated in English as 'feet-touching'. "I will have fingers left if I count the number of people who got this from me."

"I am honored to be among those few people."

OxoxO

 **Hope you like the rewrite. Leave a review or PM and let me know what you think.**


	10. Bonfire

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.**

OxoxO

"Today's yield is 10 liters. Which makes our whole inventory to 140 liters." I said as I took a seat with my crews around the bonfire. It was afternoon and our work for the day was done. After training this morning, I decided to hunt something to test my slingshot. I caught 2 rabbits in an hour. Since they were extra food in my hands, I proposed to have a bonfire. Both of them were being roasted by Chouji over the fire at the moment. He was almost done roasting them. "We have a week before Star Festival and we can cap our cooking at 180 liters with few days to spare."

"It's a shame the week will be over before the festival." Kiba said as he put Akamaru on his lap. The white puppy was trying to get near the fire. "We could've worked Sasuke that day in our stall."

Today in class Iruka had gone over transformation jutsu. At the end of his lecture he asked me to demonstrate. Most of the boys were vibrating in their seats at this and the girls were glaring holes at me, both for the same reason. But I wasn't in the mood for being ogled by perverts or screamed at by crazed fan-girls. So I took a different form; Sasuke, with charming smile. Also there weren't any clothes and a lair of smoke was covering his modesty. As expected, this time it was the girls' turn to have nosebleed. To add more effect to the jutsu I gave a pose and said, _"So who wants to play with me?"_ Suffice to say, this pissed off Sasuke so much that he challenged me to a fight. His term was that if he wins I will never use his naked form in any kind of humiliating way. Against his term I placed my term. For 7 days, he will do what I say. And as you can guess from Kiba's words, he lost.

"Who said a week?" Kiba gave an incredulous look at my words. "He will do whatever I say for 7 days. _Any_ 7 days."

"So Naruto," Chouji asked as he served parts of rabbit to everyone. "How did you defeat Sasuke so easily? I mean I know that he said everything goes but he couldn't have passed out from just a headlock, can he?" that was pretty observant of him. Guess being ninja demands it or Shikamaru has rubbed on him.

"The headlock was part of what I did." I started my explanation. "Headlock is already dangerous. Putting pressure on the right vain more than 10 seconds can kill your opponent; 5 seconds and he becomes unconscious. Since I started to use this headlock recently, I add another measure to play it safe. So when I grabbed him in headlock I placed my left hand on the back of his head and absorbed his chakra through that point. So he got exhausted and out of breath." I said as I took my piece of meat from Chouji.

"You can absorb chakra too?" Hinata asked. I gave a nod as answer as took a bite from my piece. "Oh, I thought you can only share your chakra with others."

"Turns out I can do both. Pretty neat huh?"

"That's awesome man!" Kiba got very excited. "When we are genin, you can recharge our reserve when we are low and you can drain chakra from any enemy that comes our way! Man I hope I am on your team when we graduate." Chouji showed same enthusiasm. Other 2, well one was too lazy to show enthusiasm and the other one already knew about my chakra absorption ability.

"Your chakra," Hinata said slowly. "I don't know why but for some reason it felt different from what I expected." She looked at me with a doubtful expression. "It felt… older than it should be and diluted. It felt warm like lukewarm water that's losing its warmth." A troubled expression crossed her face. "And then it started. Every time I woke up from sleep, there were things in my mind that weren't there before and I felt like some of them were missing parts of them. And sometimes seeing something makes me remember things about them."

"Like what?" Chouji asked.

"Like when we ate biryani for the first time, somehow I knew that we weren't supposed to eat them with spoon, we are supposed to eat them with hands only." She answered while looking at the ground.

With every word she spoke the boys were getting more and more surprised; I included. Shikamaru was giving me a suspicious look. But that didn't trouble me. What troubled me was why Hinata would know something like that and what she might remember. In show, all chakra conveyed was feelings and emotions, so why would she receive any of my memories? Why would it contain memory this time when it wasn't her chakra? I searched my brain for an explanation. Then I remembered my mistake. Unlike Naruto, I didn't convert my chakra to match hers and she received unknown amount of chakra that was raw in quality and it took time to settle in her reserve; which resulted into her waking up with new information about me. My Yin-Yang ratio the day before it happened was noted to be 2.45 to 1, which means the chakra I comforted her with were rich in spiritual energy composing my knowledge and experience and I have no idea how much chakra I gave her. An uncomfortable thought went through my mind. What if Hinata developed a split persona because of this? What if that persona has more in common with me? Now that wouldn't be so bad if that persona had my brand of apathy. However there was one time, after watching one too many movies on serial killers, I fancied the idea of becoming one who kills off corrupt politicians and clerics. And worse, what if she finds out about the manga and the show?

"Anything else you remember?" Shikamaru asked her while he was still looking at me. From the corner of my eyes, I could see his hand setting in rat seal. I knew what was coming but I didn't stop him. I was going to tell them about my situation anyway. A few days earlier wouldn't hurt. So I was looking at Hinata to see what she is going to say.

Hinata raised her head and looked at me. She hesitated for a moment then took a breath to calm her nerves. " _Benu bone bayu nare erokeshu mon jeno chaye kare._ "

I was surprised at what she said. That was almost exactly the only line I remember from Joshimuddin's Pollibarsha (A Rainy Day in a Village). My surprise didn't last long as my body went still and as if on autopilot, my hand planted the skewer I was holding on the ground beside me. I let out a long sigh. "Shikamaru, don't you think it's rude to paralyze a person when he is about to take a bite from his food?"

"You can eat in a jail cell when we are done." He replied in a grave tone. Others were confused at his action and words.

"Shikamaru, what are you doing?" Chouji voiced his concern first.

"What she said isn't in our language but he knows what it means." Then he asked me. "He was surprised but not clueless about what she said."

"Wind rustles in bamboo groves and my heart yearns for my beloved." I replied. "A line from a poem."

"How do you know the meaning?" Kiba asked slowly. "More importantly when did you have the time to learn a foreign language?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Shikamaru started his explanation. "The person in front of us is not the real Naruto."

"What!?"

"What gave me away?" I asked with an amused smile on my face.

"You are really asking that?" Shikamaru was annoyed.

"Maybe I should ask why it took so long to confront me about it. After all, I wasn't actually hiding anything." I wanted to end my sentence with a shrug but the damn shadow possession jutsu already took away my freedom of movement. "Now, can you please let go of your shadow possession? I am not going anywhere."

"Why should I? What's stopping you from fleeing once you are free?"

"There are a couple of ANBUs in 100 yards at 3 o'clock. They are on my tail since the day I woke up from coma." Yeah, even though Hiruzen has retracted his ANBU in show of faith after the first time we talked, Danzo didn't do the same with his Root. Earlier this week, Fu returned to his base and had a long chat with him. Next day, I found 2 Root-nins on my trail where there used to be only one. Right now they are at the position I pointed out, passed out from chakra exhaustion. It happens all the time. "You see, defection is not an option for me."

"Will you tell us what we want to know?" Shino asked in his usual monotone.

"I will be telling the truth but keep in mind that what I will say will be hard to believe."

"How do we know you are telling the truth?"

"You can go to the Hokage for verification. He knows almost everything I will be telling you."

"If the Hokage knows that you are not the real Naruto then why didn't he do anything about it?"

"The only thing he can do about me is exorcising me out of this body and frankly it would save me from feeling guilty. But that doesn't necessarily mean the real Naruto will come back. I am sure he thought this through and came to conclusion that, either way Naruto is gone and it's more beneficial for the village for this body to be alive and walking."

"That's…. that's so messed up!" Kiba was shaking. He marched towards me and grabbed me by collar. "You… you bastard stole Naruto's body and you say we can't do anything about it? Guess what! After we heard what you say I am gonna beat you to a pulp! You hear me!" he was huffing at the end of his tirade.

Another long sigh escaped my mouth as I closed my eyes. "Shikamaru, you couldn't wait until star festival was over."

"You mean to say you were going reveal your identity to us?" surprise crossed Shikamaru's face.

"Yes," I looked at Hinata as I continued my answer. She was looking at me with tears in her eyes. The girl was shaking. "At the very least, I would've told her." I lowered my voice few more octaves. "Shikamaru, I know you are reaching your limit. Let's make it easy for the both of us and end your jutsu."

After a moment of hesitation, he dropped the jutsu. I stood up and slowly walked up to Hinata. The poor girl was sobbing. When I reached her she looked up to me. The tear running down her face was heartbreaking to see. I pulled her in an embrace and she didn't have strength or will to pull back from a person who was wearing the face of a boy she admired. She was that devastated. Moments later, with hesitation she returned the hug. I put my right hand over her head and let her rest her head at my shoulder. Her crying was uncontrollable now. She was bawling her heart out. Her grief over the loss of Naruto was now for everyone to see. Without saying a word, I kept stroking her short hair to calm her down. Others stayed silent all the while it took her crying to come under control. After few minutes, she stopped crying eventually. Her body was shaking from her sniffling.

"I am sorry." I said in a lower voice. "I know Naruto meant more to you than to anyone else. My second chance in life killed him and I am sorry it happened this way." Yeah, I very much would've preferred to be born as Naruto than suddenly finding myself in his body. "I don't know if it will help you any but please believe me when I say it wasn't my choice and I still don't know why I got this second chance."

She backed from my hug and I let go. She dried her tears with her sleeves. "I don't know what to think about this. But thank you for telling the truth." She said in between her sniffles. "Rijuan." She uttered my name with a strained smile.

I gave her a nod before returning to my previous seat. Taking the skewer Shikamaru made me plant on the ground, I took a bite. Other also started to settle around the dying bonfire. They were unsure of what to say, so when their stomachs started grumbling their choice became easy. Only Hinata wasn't eating. "Hinata," I called out. "I know you are grieving over your loss. But not eating while you are hungry won't help you any." With a silent nod, she took her skewer and started nibbling on it.

"So," looks like Kiba is going to be the first to ask questions. "What should we call you?"

"If you don't have anything against it, then please call me Naruto."

"But you are not Naruto."

"I know I am not the original one. But until I drop dead for another time, hopefully for good; this is my name. My soul replaced Naruto's. I owe it to him to carry on his name. All that my old name is doing right now is adorning a gravestone where my body has been buried. I am not among the people who called me by that name. So what's the point in telling people to call me by it? And to be truthful, I can't have myself see flashbacks every time someone calls me by it. It carries years of memory that will just make it hard for me to move on."

"When did you… become Naruto?" Chouji was unsure about how to voice the question.

"From your perspective, the minute before I unlocked chakra."

"But we were in the middle of the class."

"And I was surprised to find myself in a field full of kids."

"Kids?" Kiba looked me up and down. "How old were you when you died?" If I was a woman, he would be nursing bumps in his head right now. Thankfully I wasn't a female before and I didn't end up in a universe where Naruto was a girl.

"How old do I have to be to call you kids?" I threw a counter question. Guess they were thinking I was an old man before I died. "But don't worry; I didn't die being surrounded by my kids and grandkids. 19 years. That's how long I lived last time around."

"19 years! You must've been a jonin then."

"I wasn't a jonin. I wasn't even a ninja." I paused and looked over their faces. "In fact, we didn't have chakra."

It took several seconds for them to understand what I just said.

"What!? That's impossible!"

"How did you survive without chakra?"

"How did you guys even fight?"

"What do you mean by 'we'?

"Me not having chakra is tied down to my origin of my previous life. One of the Hokage's ninjas asked me about it. I will give you the same answer I gave him. Unless human race evolved to gain the ability to use the energy called chakra in so many ways over next million years after my death, I am either in a different planet where human race evolved differently or in a different universe altogether." I looked at their faces. "To answer your questions, it wasn't impossible to not have chakra." I said looking at Kiba. "We survived on air, water and food." Chouji looked the other way, embarrassed. "And we had weapons." I left it at that.

The silence following my answer was long. They were looking at each other, trying to understand what I just said. "If it's the first case, then everyone I spent my life with, all the places I have memories of, are nothing but specks of dusts beneath my feet or floating in the air. And if it's the other one," I looked at the sky. Sun has started to set. Orange light was giving way to darkness of the evening. Evening hasn't come fully, but few stars were visible in the sky. "then I am so far away from them that even if I spent my whole life time, I will never reach them."

"How," I lowered my head hearing Hinata's small voice. "How did you… die?"

"My, I guess you can say my siblings, were about to be run over by a heavy vehicle. I was nearest to them, so I jumped to push them out of the way. After I pushed them forward, I tried to jump to save myself but I lost my balance at the second I tried. At the speed the vehicle was running, I was lucky only one of its wheels went over me. If the next wheel got over me too, I wouldn't have had last few moments to speak with my family." I kept the gory details out of my description. No need to give their impressionable minds any fuel to conjure up a nightmare.

"Was your siblings adopted?"

"No Chouji," I replied. "I was the one adopted."

"So you were an orphan? Just like Naruto?"

"In a way, I was an orphan. But I was luckier than Naruto in regards to family." I answered Kiba. "After my mother's death when I was 3, my father left me to my grandparents care. From what I learned later, he was a wreck after mom's death. And with his job in the army, he couldn't raise me on his own. Then he was called on a peacekeeping mission in a different continent. When I was 6, news reached us that he died in line of duty. It hit my grandparents hard. They were old people and they weren't very healthy. My grandma died when I was 8. My grandpa feared that he didn't have much time left. My father was their only child. So he contacted my maternal aunt. She and her husband were trying for kids for few years but they were unsuccessful so far. In the rural parts of our country there was a saying that if you don't have children then adopt an orphan and raise the child with care; God will see and He will bestow upon you his gift. That and because my aunt loved my mother dearly, she and her husband agreed almost readily. They came to our home a month later and took me with them to the capital where they lived. They also asked grandpa to come live with them but the old man refused. He said that he wants to draw his last breath where he was born, grew up and grew old with grandma. Few months later, he did. My aunt and uncle were well off. Both of them were teachers. Aunt worked in a high school as literature teacher and uncle was a professor in a university. Both of them were busy people and it was 3 months before year's end so I couldn't get in any school. I spent most of my days reading books from their collection. They would always return home before dinner and uncle or aunt depending on who was free would sit me down to teach me things I need to learn for school. In dinner table, they would tell me stories, how their days went. I would tell them about the books I read." I was turning nostalgic with every sentence I was saying. "Things got easier when I started school next year. I made few friends and we were friends until… Not long after, aunt became pregnant with her first child. After her birth, I was overjoyed that now I have a sibling. I cradled her in my arms, I sung lullaby and did all sorts of things all elder siblings do. And our life went on peacefully."

"Earlier," Shikamaru started his question. "You said that it's more beneficial for the village for you to be alive. Why is that?"

"There are many things about Naruto that he himself didn't know. Much information regarding him is kept secrets. Naruto has played a big role in this village's defense from the day he was born. Since I… became Naruto, that role has passed on to me."

"What role?" Kiba was anxious to know.

"Since it's my secret now, I can reveal it to you. But remember, it's an S-rank secret and revealing it can earn you a death penalty. You can talk about it with people who already know but otherwise, revealing this piece of information is a serious crime." I took in every one of their faces. They were unsure and uncomfortable but they were also curious. "All of you know about the Nine Tails' attack on this village and that Fourth Hokage sacrificed his life to kill it. But there is more to that story. He didn't or rather he couldn't kill the tailed beast. No human can kill a tailed beast."

"What did he do?"

"He did the next best thing." I lifted lower part of my t-shirt and channeled chakra to my belly to make the seal visible. "He sealed the Nine Tails into a newborn who wasn't even an hour old, Naruto. And since that day, he kept the Nine Tails at bay without knowing."

"Is.. is that why the adults hated him? Told their children to stay away from him?"

"Yes. The Nine Tails has caused loss of many lives and massive amount of collateral damage. So people hate him. And Naruto contained the Nine Tails, so he received their scorn and hatred."

"And now you are going to be treated the way people treated him."

"Whenever they see this face," I moved my pointer around my face. "all they see is the Nine Tails. It doesn't matter to them deep down, what the person behind this face is like."

The fire was dying down, so I started to stir the embers with my skewer.

"You said you were going to tell us about this. When were you going to do that?" Kiba was feeding a piece of rabbit-meat to Akamaru as he asked the question.

"At first I decided to tell you guys on second weekend after I woke up. Then we started preparing for the Star Festival. So I decided to wait until it was over. May be the next day or the day after that, at our earliest convenience." My gaze passed over all of them, one by one. "You guys deserve to know, that being friend with me will come with a cost and the Nine Tails is the least of your worries."

"What do you mean by that?" Shikamaru's eyes were alert at the hint of threat.

"Have you ever heard of a man named Danzo Shimura?"

The kids looked at each other. None of them knew about the man. Except Shino. "I once met the person. He came to our compound to meet my father. He wanted to recruit me for something but my father was against his proposal. In the end he recruited my cousin Torune."

"Danzo Shimura is a member of Council of Elders and part of village hierarchy. He operates an independent branch of ANBU called Root." I started my description of the man. "Unlike ANBU, Root recruits children at an early age. Most of them are taken from orphanages. They are put through a rigorous training regime, brainwashed and indoctrinated in an interpretation of Will of Fire that suits Danzo. In the end, they become puppets waiting for orders from their master." I finished describing Danzo and his private army. Now onto the reason why I was telling them all this. "The day before I woke up from coma, he sent one of his agents, a Yamanaka named Fu, to infiltrate my inner world. I have been conscious about my surroundings for a while by then. So I was alerted of his intrusion immediately. Fortunately for me, he didn't expect me to have any control over my inner world. So I was able to ambush him and extract information. Danzo had his eyes on Naruto from the day he was born. He wanted to take Naruto in his clutches and turn him into the ultimate weapon for this village. But the Hokage forbade him to recruit Naruto. He even went so far as to forbidding Danzo from interacting with Naruto in any way. Fortunately for Naruto, the villagers' ostracization helped him this time. Very few people willingly interacted with Naruto and disappearance of any of them would be noticeable. Because of that, Danzo didn't have any leverage against Naruto."

"So you are saying," as expected of a kid with high intellect, Shikamaru had deduced the situation. "any one of us can be held as a leverage to make you join his personal army?"

"That's right." I replied with a nod. "Danzo is a very ruthless and ambitious man. He wants the power of the Nine Tails under his belt to make a bid for Hokage position. Inside the village wall, he is the most dangerous enemy anyone will face. Fu has returned to his base earlier this week. The ANBUs that I said are watching me are actually Root agents. He is going to try something very soon. Which means…" closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. Opening my eyes, I gave them a somber look. "If you chose to stay friends with me you will have to keep an eye out for yourselves and your clan."

"So it's our choice if we want to stay friends with you or not?" Kiba asked in his usual brash voice.

"I wouldn't fault you if all of you decide to shut me out. Family always comes first."

"What do you plan to do if Danzo decides to make his move on our clans?"

"Shino, how can you ask him to save our family?" the dog lover retorted to Shino's question. "He already got enough on his plate with the Nine Tails and that bastard geezer."

"That's because he is older than us in mental capacity." Kiba went silent at Shino's statement. Then he looked at me as if he wanted me to confirm Shino's answer. "He is older than us and he knew about this threat from the beginning. If my assumption isn't wrong, then he already made a counter-measure for Danzo's action. If I am not wrong then he is offering us an way out if situation gets out of his control."

Now everyone looked at me for answer. Instead of giving them a verbal answer, I raised a finger in front of me. Moments later, one of my bug clones landed on its top. "This bug may look insignificant." I started. "But if I have enough of them, I can wipe out most of Danzo's drones in an instant." The bug flew from my finger, few feet high in the air and then it exploded. The blast radius was only 7 inches but the heat it radiated was over 30 degree centigrade.

"That's cool and all," Kiba was impressed at my display but he had his doubt. "But the explosion isn't that big. If those roots are trained as hard as you say they are, then I bet they can avoid any explosion."

"Kiba, they won't explode outside a root-nins' body. My bug clones will explode once they enter inner ear. You can guess what will happen if an explosion occurs in that part of head. And right now, there are at least 20 such clones inside Danzo's base. They are gathering info on his agents and to some extent, keeping eyes on him as well." I let out sigh. "Like I said earlier, I wouldn't fault you for shutting me out. I know how it feels to lose a family and I don't have any right to ask you to risk them. But if you still chose to remain my friends, I will make Danzo's life so hard that his great-grandsons will feel it." My declaration was quiet and the kids were again looking at each other.

It was Shino who made his choice first. He stood up and came forward. "If my cousin Torune still lives, you will spare his life." His condition was straight forward and we have a clan full of psychiatrists to rehabilitate his cousin so it wouldn't be a problem.

"Your cousin Torune is still alive but he has been indoctrinated. If I have to make a move against Root, I will have him incapacitated." I extended my hand for a handshake. He was unsure for a second, and then he took my hand.

"Naruto, or whoever you really are, don't get me wrong. It was a lot to take in and I am still a bit confused with the Nine Tails and you being not Naruto. It will take time for me to come to term with all these." Kiba was looking the other way as he said this. "I don't know what that bastard plans to do, but if he comes after my clan and I am not strong enough to protect them, I want you to make him pay." Akamaru gave a subdued yap as his agreement to his master.

"I already said I would do that, didn't I?" I gave him a smile. Then I decided to throw something from Game of Thrones. "When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives."

Kiba was surprised at the quote. Bet he liked the vibe of it. With a feral grin adorning his face, he gave me a nod. My vision was filled with the sight of a pack of potato chips as Kiba stepped back.

"Naruto, can you…" Chouji hesitated. "Can you bring some biryani for lunch sometime?" Among all the males of Konoha 12, Chouji was noted to be the kindest and his earnest acceptance left no doubt about it. I took the chips from his hand and nodded.

"I will. From time to time."

"Come to my house to play shogi sometimes." In his bored voice, it seemed like an invitation. But since Shikamaru didn't utter the word 'troublesome' or 'drag', I am sure it was actually a challenge.

"I have to find some ways to kill my free time. Might as well learn how to play shogi." Strategic games weren't my forte. Not because I hated them but because these games were so time-consuming that I almost always lost my patience at the end. Then I would just move my pieces just to keep the game going.

' _Obtaining allies, successful._ ' I said to myself as I looked at their faces. Not that I acquired their friendship this evening. I just made sure that they would stay friends with me even after knowing the truth of the situation. I would count this as a small victory for me. I don't have Naruto's infamous talk no jutsu; but my honesty worked for me just fine. The boys will have doubts about me for a while, like Kiba admitted. But it's not like I don't have the time to fix that. The only one who will need more than just honesty from me is the sole female of our group. Except for her question about my death, she remained quiet throughout the revelation. Looking back at her, I saw that she was looking down at her feet.

The boys followed my gaze and saw what I saw. Kiba was about to call her but I grabbed his shoulder before he could do that. I shook my head when he looked at me.

"Boys," I said to them in a quiet voice. "You have learnt some hard to believe truth just now. Go home and sleep on it. I will see you guys tomorrow at the academy."

"Are you sure? She is…"

"Don't worry about her. I will keep her safe until I drop her home." Our group dispersed as they bid us goodbyes after that.

Hinata Hyuga. A shy girl who developed inferiority complex due to being looked down by some members of her clan on an almost daily basis. Her only reprieve from all the bullshit her clan put her through was Naruto and his sunshine smile. At this point in time, she was the only girl who admired Naruto and her admiration would've eventually grown to be love. If only I wasn't here. And now she is heartbroken because her pillar of hope is gone.

' _Time to console a heartbroken girl._ '

OxoxO

AN: So the second revelation finally happened. It took me 6 days to write this chapter and one day to edit. What do you think? Let me know in your review.


	11. Piggyback

**So, how have you all been my readers?**

 **This chapter took me the longest to write. I thought about 3 roots to start this chapter and before I knew it a whole week has passed to start typing. And then I got caught up in binge reading My Hero Academia fics. I finished reading Torchbearer and Mightless. Two very good fic in MHA-verse. Finally I got my longest yet PM from ADVIN which prompted me to get into gear. So you have him to thank for the update. So ayway, let's start the chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.**

 **OxoxO**

When I planned to do something to change the people that will play a major role in the future, I chose 2 of my classmates to work on. Sasuke and Hinata.

Sasuke is for obvious reason. As whatever Itachi planned for Sasuke would be fucked up thoroughly when Orochimaru and later Tobi enters the picture if I don't do anything about. And by the time he kills the right person who ordered the Uchiha Massacre, he was too far gone into the dark side that no amount of tomato flavored cookies gonna bring him back to light. I will have to pay my arm to bring the bastard into light. I love my hands very much, thank you. I don't care if Sasuke loses his. He would be celebrating No-Nut-Teenage-Years anyway.

As for Hinata, it's because of her lack of confidence. At this point in cannon timeline, her self-doubt issue was monumental. I blame her clan for that. If by any chance, I could implant one of my qualities in her, I would implant my mentality to not give a fuck to the people who don't give a fuck about me. Since she came to me willingly and she needed help most, I did whatever I can. I spent time with her whenever she asked or I had nothing to do. At first, I encouraged her to talk about things she likes. Then I asked her opinion on matters that our group would discuss. Our group's outings, be it cooking doi or candy poker, brought her out of her shell little by little. Now a days, she isn't afraid of speaking her mind; slightly embarrassed maybe but not afraid. Our occasional spars and encouraging words boosted her confidence in her fighting abilities somewhat. And hours spent in staring contest between the two of us brought her uneasy at being in close proximity under control. All of it happened in last few weeks.

And now there is a chance that it all might come crashing down. There is no way I am gonna let that happen. But what do I do? I felt the weight of indecision on my shoulder as I looked at the Hyuga heiress. _What do I say to her? What_ should _I say to her?_

Telling a girl that her loved one died is one thing. But giving her the bad- _devastating_ \- news while wearing his face? That's something I would never wish on someone who has even a little bit of humanity left. But what can I do? I would've told her sooner or later. Because every time I noticed her blush at seeing me, I felt like I was deceiving her and guilt ate away at me. And now that it's out in the open, it's my responsibility to console her. Well, no point in wasting time.

She was quietly sitting on her spot. I don't think she even noticed that others have gone home. She will have to return home soon too. Hiashi has withdrawn her curfew for the time being as working in our group will help her building good relation with other clan heirs and it will improve her standing in her clan. But he will have to be an utter bastard to know that his daughter hasn't returned home so late and not send someone to search for her. I would have to take her home before that.

I looked at the packet of chips Chouji gave me. _Better put this to good use._ Popping it open, I took one in my mouth. It had a spicy flavor. This would do. I strode forward to her and crouched down so that we are both at eye-level.

"Hinata," she raised her gaze as I called her name. "Say, aaaa." She was lost in thought. Now she is clueless as to why I am gesturing her to open her mouth. "Say, aaaa." I urged her again.

"Aaaa." I put a chip in her mouth as soon she opened it. Surprise crossed her face but she involuntarily munched on it nonetheless. That's good; now she is distracted from her depressing thought.

"You are wondering why I did that, aren't you?" she gave a nod at my question. "You needed a distraction from your thought."

"Why would you think that?"

"It's because you were thinking about Naruto." I stood up from my crouching position and moved to seat beside her. Looking at the few stars at night sky I continued, "When you lose someone, you think about him for a long time. It's only natural. You can't put him out of your mind. Every little thing reminds you of him. You think about all the things you wanted to do with him but didn't get the chance to. All the things you wanted to say to him but couldn't. They swarm your head and overwhelm you. As time goes on, it becomes easier to live with the pain." Taking a deep breath I looked at her. "However in this particular case, it will be harder for you to cope with your loss. Especially when you will be seeing this every day." I made a circle on the air in front of my face. "For split second, this face will make you think that Naruto is still here but then you will remember that no, he is not here. It's just his face, his body with a different person, a different soul, inside. And the worst part is, you will have to call him by the name of the person you admired since he can't go by his previous name."

"Then what do I do?" her eyes was started to water with unshed tears. "I feel like… there is a hole in my chest. A part of me wants to scream at you that I hate you and it's your fault that Naruto isn't here anymore. Another part says that it's not your fault, that you are a good person. I know you are a good person, otherwise you wouldn't have told us about yourself. I know everything you said is true, that you mean what you said about helping us to protect our family. But I don't know what to do. Naru- Rijuan, I am lost. You are so many years older than me. Can you..." a hiccup trembled through her small frame. "Can you tell me what I should do?"

Now, what can I tell her? Hold yourself together? Considering she is still composed to this degree, she is doing this great. Talk about it? She is doing this to some degree. But frankly, I am not the best person to give emotional support to someone. The losses I've felt in my childhood and trying to adopt a robot's way of thinking after reading too many sci-fi stories, and some philosophical articles, made sure of that. If it wasn't for aunt, uncle, my friends and specially my siblings, I might've become another Sheldon Cooper.

"Right now, you are conflicted about what you should think of the whole situation. I could tell you my way of handling loss but…" A long sigh escaped my mouth. "I am not really sure how much it would help. After all, our mindsets are different." And my loss-sensor has long been dulled. "I am not an expert in psychology but I know one thing about females. It's best for them to talk about their grief. I know you are an introvert person and you can't really talk to someone about this mess without them calling you mentally unfit but try it. The boys know about it now, so you can talk to them. You can talk to me about it if you feel like it and don't really want an answer, just need to be heard. Just don't bottle things up."

"How did you get over things like this?"

"My way of dealing with this kind of loss is to cry until I fall asleep, have long, good night sleep, wake up, let the leftover tear out and then concentrate on something new." And I advised my first generation friends this too. Mostly when one of them got rejected by their crush or got dumped. "It might sound cold but it helps." I looked heavenward as faces of my friends from back and family flashed through my mind. "It's still helping. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of night, after dreaming of my family or friends, about the life I was going to have. Some morning, I think 'who is the kid?' when I see this face in the mirror. Then I remember, this is my face now. And this is my life. A second chance; undesired but not unwelcomed." Lowering my gaze, I stood up from my seat. "Anyway, it's been a long hour. So let's take you home. Even though I have no problem staying here all night, I don't think your father will be happy if you stay here past your curfew." Turning my back to her, I crouched down. "Hop on."

"B-but I can walk."

"I know you can, honey. But you are emotionally drained. You wouldn't know where your feet is taking you before you hit your head on something."

She stood up from her spot and reluctantly took her place on my back. Unlike the time I body flickered both of us to the Academy from market district, she didn't wrap her hands around my front. Instead she simply placed her hands on my shoulders. After securing her legs with my arms, I stood up and started walking in Hyuga Estate's direction. I could've used body flicker jutsu to take her home quickly, but after an emotional episode like that I needed to walk, a long walk. And there was something I needed to talk to her about. But do I have to broach the subject right now? Well, the sooner the better. We will have to go through market district to reach her home. It's better to talk about it where there is no people to overhear.

"Hinata?" I started after few minutes of walking in silence.

"Yes?"

"I don't know if it's the right time to talk about this but I think the sooner you know about this the better." Taking deep breath I started. "First, can you tell me how long have you been experiencing the memory thing?"

"It started few days after you gave me your chakra."

"Does this happen often?"

"No. like I said, I just feel like there is something in my head that I should know about but they don't come to the front until I see or hear something that makes me fully remember them."

"Yeah, you said that before." So the _package_ is already in her head. It's just unpacking little by little. So far only she only received memories. "Does it hurt when this happens?"

"Not very much. Sometimes it gives me a headache but it goes away after a moment." After a short pause, she asked, "Is it about your memories? You don't want me to have them?"

"Except for few things, I don't have anything against you having my memories of. I think I have made it clear that I am an open person. From my past, there isn't anything to hide actually. So I am not worried about that." I inhaled a short breath as I formulated next part of my answer. "What I am actually worried about is my personality being mixed with your psyche. Unlike with the matter with memories and emotions, I am not really sure if chakra can carry one person's qualities to another. In short, I don't want you to turn out like me."

"But- but why? I don't think you are a bad person."

"Thanks for the complement." I said with a chuckle. "But it's more than just good or bad. Overall, I might be a good person, but there is darkness inside me. True, every person- no matter how good they are- have at least a speck of darkness inside them. What worries me is that, if my bad qualities seeps into your system and you don't know how to keep it under control, it will change you for the worse." From the way she tensed at my explanation told me that she is already fearing the worst outcome. "So, if you wake up one morning and have a sudden urge to kill a certain kind of person, please talk to someone about it before doing it."

"Why would I want to kill people?"

"One time, I fancied the idea of becoming a serial killer." The gasp she let out said that she wasn't expecting me to wish something like this. "The only people I would've targeted would be corrupt politicians and clerics. One kind cause problem for general populace and the other take advantage of people's faith in them. Thankfully, it was just a passing fancy, so it went away after 2 or 3 days."

"If you don't want me to have your memories, you can take your chakra back. I wouldn't mind."

Her offer was sound and for me it would've been the most logical path to take. Which was why earlier I have scanned her from head to toe with my sensory jutsu before Shikamaru caught me in his shadow possession.

Yamanaka sensing technique was very handy. As Yamanaka clan's jutsu was basically spiritual in nature, like astral projection and possession combo, their sensory jutsu too is built on this foundation. It works on the principle that as chakra is mixture of spiritual energy and physical energy; as long as it remains in a person's body it contains a fragment of that person's consciousness. This particular jutsu perceives these fragments as lights of various colors.

From warging into cats, I know my aura color is a lighter shade of gray. When I scanned Hinata to find the presence of this color in her bright white, all I saw was few off-white spots. ' _Now there is no way to extract that bit of chakra safely._ ' I thought to myself as my concentration wavered from being paralyzed by Shikamaru's shadow. So I deactivated my jutsu.

"It's impossible to remove my chakra from your system safely. It's done settling in in most parts." I said with a sigh. "If this came to my attention earlier then I could've extracted my chakra from your system as much as possible or I could've tried to convert it to your chakra. But after residing in your system for 2 months, almost all of it has settled in and merged with your chakra."

"Then what do I do? I don't want to… I don't…" she staggered to voice her concern. It's not hard to guess that she was afraid of offending me if she said she didn't want to become someone who fancied becoming a murderer.

"Relax. You can speak your mind with me. It's not very easy to offend me." I assured her. "You don't want to have my bad qualities and there is nothing wrong with it. Whatever worked for me, wouldn't work for you anyway.

"I am sorry."

"For what?" without waiting for her answer I continued. "It was ignorance on my part. That and I didn't know the right procedure to share chakra with others. If anything, I am the one who should say sorry." No shit. There is a possibility I am carrying future-potential serial killer who would one day snap from being bullied by bunch of stuck-up old geezer and kill them the same way I wanted to make my serial killing method. Tie them down inside a drum, then leave a water hose inside it and let it fill the drum up _veeeery_ slowly. Torture and killing in one combo. And it will be all on me. "Any way, I want to thank you for staying my friend till now. Among our group, you have the most reason to not want to remain such. I know there is nothing I can do to make it up to you, but I will try my hardest to help you. So I need ask, will you allow me to help you? Will you ask me for help when you need?"

"You want to help me?"

"I like to help people who need it and among all my new friends, you need help the most."

"I am sorry for being a burden." I might not see it, but there was no doubt that if I give her 2 seconds she will start tearing up. I am not- in clear conscience- going to make her cry more than I already did.

"Hinata, don't think of yourself as a burden. You are a kind person who has great potential to become someone strong. If you keep thinking yourself as a burden, your potential will never be realized. Do you want that?"

"No." she replied in low voice as her hand moved from my shoulder to wipe any tear that gathered in her eyes.

"I can't hear you."

"No." a bit louder than before.

"Still can't hear you."

"NO. I DON'T WANT TO BE A BURDEN." This time half-yelling. That's better.

"I heard you loud and clear."

"I thought you were going pull Beethoven jokes."

"You know the Beethoven joke?" I was surprised. The only Beethoven joke I knew, I saw it in meme on facebook once.

"I just remembered it."

"If you remember any more jokes from memories, you have to tell me. Almost all of them became inside jokes only I understand." I said in happy voice. Right, crying solved; now onto the serious matter. "Anyway, can you guess why I want to help? Besides the obvious that is."

"Umm, I am not so sure."

"It's because of Danzo and the division in your clan." I already told about Danzo, so I elaborated the second cause. "To be truthful, the idea of a clan is somewhat foreign to me. The only thing I have similar from my culture is the large extended families with multiple generations of siblings, cousins and all other kind of relatives living together that could be found in rural areas in the past. However the division in your clan, main house and branch house, is what sets apart the Hyuga clan from anything I know about this kind of families. It wouldn't have felt so horrendous to me if the branch house Hyugas weren't slaves to the main house in all but name and didn't have to wear caged bird seal on their forehead. In my opinion, it's the worst family tradition I know of after Nikhai."

"Do you think Danzo would take advantage of this system?"

"Divide and conquer is the oldest trick in the book for politics and war and it still works. To Danzo's good fortune, Hyuga clan did the first part themselves. The few times I was around your clan estate, I've seen how branch house members look at their main house counterparts with contempt and hatred. It might not show in their faces when you look at them but you can feel it in your back when you turn around. This hatred has been there for centuries and it's increasing with every passing day. Despite this, there hasn't been any conflict. The Caged Bird Seal ensured main house's upper hand should a conflict arise. Branch house members fear the pain this seal can inflict on them and what could befall their family if they doesn't succeed in their endeavor. But what would happen if - hypothetically speaking- Danzo supply them a seal that can negate the curse mark's pain inflicting function? Or even better rebound the pain upon the one who activates the seal? Main house members might have upper hand skill-wise but their counterparts still outnumber them. I have been in this world for about 2 months and even I can see the holes in this system. Would it be very farfetched to think that a man who has been a shinobi longer than my father has been alive wouldn't have some ways to take advantage of it? What happens when both side of your clan in equal footing is anyone's guess."

"And since you are an outsider, you can't do anything to help if that happens."

"Even if I help it will worsen your standing in the clan for relying on an outsider." And then the bastard will offer me his aid to resolve this problem on the condition that I become his toy. "And that's why I need you to become strong so that you wouldn't have to rely on me if situation like this ever come to pass. So you see, I don't want you to become strong because I see you as a burden. It's more like teach a man how to fish and he will eat every day."

We lapsed into silence after for the remainder of our walk in Aburame estate. There wasn't anything more to talk about the current situation and what might come after. She is no doubt going to toss and turn in her bed for a long time tonight and few nights afterward.

My mood soured when we reached Market district. The bastards were glaring at us. Some of them were whispering behind our backs. Unfortunately I didn't have the special poncho with me and even if I had, I wouldn't wear it with Hinata on my back. A gentle girl like her shouldn't be associated with clothings with this kind of design. If she were RTN!Hinata then I wouldn't have cared.

"Um, Naruto?" so she wants to talk more. I would say that's an improvement from what I saw on the show. And it's going to distract me from glares and whispers. "Can you tell me about the practice of Nikhai? Were they from your past world?"

"It's actually the practice that created Nikhais and it was actually from my country." It wouldn't take a whole lot of time to tell her everything I knew about this accursed practice and the Hyuga estate weren't very far, only few blocks. So I started. "Few centuries ago, there was a family of big shot land owners called Bhuiya. For whatever reason one of their ancestor decided to start a practice no other rich families had at the time. In this tradition, any male Bhuiya would choose his first wife from a poor family and for her whole life she will be a servant to his second wife, who would usually come from a rich family."

"That's so wrong, and cruel."

"That's just the beginning. If the wife was treated badly, then her children suffered worse fate than their mother." I once watched a TV drama about the suffering of these children as struggle to find a foothold in the society for a better life. In the ends the protagonist dies and his sisters remained unmarried. Another time I watched a romance-tragedy where a young Bhuiya falls in love with a Nikhai woman. But when his family gets wind of it, they lock him up. Then they exile the woman's family from the village. "The woman from the poor family wouldn't be treated as a true wife even if she came into the picture first. She would be treated like just another servant and wouldn't get anything more than what a servant would be given. It sounds harsh but she would get 3 meals a day and good clothing to wear. That was more than what many of those women's fathers could afford. And when she births any child, that child wouldn't get anything either. He wouldn't get any money, an inch of land or even his father's family name. The Bhuiyas branded those off-springs and their descendants as Nikhai. And this stigma would ruin their lives forever. It's a good thing this practice was abandoned when our government at the time limited the amount of land a person or a family was allowed to own. Otherwise this foul practice would still be practiced and ruin more lives." In my eyes, this practice was more disgusting than Ottoman's fratricide tradition; at least Ottoman sultans didn't make their male relatives and their descendants' lives hell.

We reached the immediate block before Hyuga estate as I finished my tale. I let her down before the Hyuga guards at the gate could see her on my back. She shuffled on her feet few times. We bid each other good night and I made my way to my apartment. Tomorrow class in academy is going to be awkward among our group. I have to do something to break it.

"Ah, yes. Sasuke has to slave for 7 days. Why not start it tomorrow." Making the cross seal, I made a shadow clone and handed him money to buy the necessary things.

 **OxoxO**

 **So what do you think? Leave a review and let me know.**

 **Preview of next chapter**

 **"You have yet to hear me lie and I am yet to need to lie."**


	12. Wanna Hear Me Lie?

**Update Note: I added few more paragraphs at the end of second section of the chapter. Other than that, everything in this chapter is unchanged.**

 **Sorry for the long delay in update after my promised time. My laptop crashed and I didn't made any online copy of this chapter before that. So I lost the whole chapter. Luckily, I still had my notes on this chapter. With that, I composed the chapter from the beginning.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto in any way, shape or form.**

 **Update Note:** Just added teaser for the next chapter. Go straight to the bottom of this page. And again sorry for my lateness. I am reworking earlier chapters. So it will take a while for uploading next chapter. My most sincerest apologies to fans of this story.

* * *

XoxoX

* * *

Hiruzen knocked on the door of Naruto's apartment. It was his first visit after Rijuan replaced Naruto in spirit. He still wasn't sure what to call him. Sure he knew his name, but whenever he saw that face of the child his successor burdened with the Nine Tails, he couldn't help his mind and tongue but to call him Naruto. He would admit that he was keeping his distance from the _new arrival_ because he had his doubt about him. But after his show of gratitude that day in his study, he knew that he had earned the young man's trust. To be honest, he _could_ picture Naruto to grow up to act like him, just a little louder and obnoxious when he saw him smile and lough heartily. But that doesn't change the fact that fundamentally he was different.

The door opened to reveal Naruto's face. For a moment he thought Naruto himself was greeting him. But then he noticed the number stitched on headband he was wearing. He knew from Anbu report that when Naruto had more than 5 clones in one place, they find something to distinguish themselves, like wearing headbands with numbers or use transformation jutsu to differentiate among themselves. It helps with addressing and assigning tasks.

"Hey gramp, come inside." The clone greeted as he opened the door fully to let him in. This part of Rijuan's personality he enjoyed. The boy was informal with him when no one or Jiraiya was around. He would still act formal when atmosphere calls for it. Truthfully, when he learnt that the real Naruto is no more, he was saddened that he wouldn't hear him call that again. It would've hurt more if the same face and same voice spoke to him formally all the time.

"Where is your original?" He asked the clone as he entered. He looked around the apartment. Not that he needed to have a look. He saw the boy decorating his apartment however he saw fit through his viewing crystal.

"Hey boss, gramp is here." He yelled as he made his way to kitchen.

"Gramp, come this way. I am practicing my balance." Answer came from a room that should have been in the other apartment. ' _Oh yes, I gave him permission to break the wall between his apartment and the adjacent apartment to join them.'_

When he stepped inside the room, he saw Naruto in the middle of the room and there were few marbles around him. The preteen boy was standing on two boards and judging by gaps between them and floor, they had marbles underneath them.

"That's an interesting exercise, my boy." Hiruzen said. "Seems really hard."

"It is." Naruto started his explanation. "From the moment you step on these boards on marbles, you have to watch your balance. You know how spherical objects encounter the least amount of resistance? Well, being between floor and board, two flat surfaces, if you move forward they move backward and if you move backward they move forward. I am trying to keep the marbles from moving by staying still and keeping them glued to both floor and the boards with my chakra. But there are a dozen of them and the points of contact are very small. So I slipped only a few dozen times since I started." And as if to emphasis the point, the boy lost his balance and fell on his butt.

"This sounds like a very good exercise for perfecting balance and chakra control." Hiruzen commented as Naruto collected the marbles. "Not to mention pretty advanced." This exercise was similar to how Jiraiya described his sage training to be, only less fatal. Naruto would slip on few feet only, unlike Jiraiya's fall from almost hundred feet tall spike. He will let Jiraiya know about this exercise in his next letter. For being on battlefield and travel in his youth and now because of his complacency, Jiraiya was unable to completely master sage mode. If this exercise was of some use to him; then that's good. "Of course, if you incorporate this into other exercises, it will increase their difficulty and your mastery over them in turn. You have something in your mind for that, don't you?"

"I did plan on doing pushups this way after I got the hang of it." Naruto said as he gathered all marbles and placed them in a jar. "Anyway, did you have something to discuss with me?"

"Why, you sound like you want me out of your apartment as soon as you can."

"Don't act to be fake-hurt, old man." Naruto said as he turned around. "It's too early in the morning for your secretary to let you leave your paperwork. And I have class to attend to."

"Well I am glad you can see underneath the underneath." Hiruzen gave an amused smile as Naruto called him on his obvious act. He followed after the boy as he made his way to dining table. "You might want to try keeping your honesty in check. We wouldn't want our secret to be in our enemies hands just because they asked you nicely."

"You have yet to hear me lie and I am yet to need to lie." Naruto replied with a confident smirk. This was something that worried Hiruzen. The few days Jiraiya spent time with Naruto; he mentioned, and Hiruzen noticed, that Naruto speaks looking directly in the eye. This combined with his image of honesty will make it harder for people to distrust him if he lies. "I doubt your stomach would agree with my breakfast. Do you want some tea?"

"I have had breakfast before coming. And yes, a cup of tea would be appreciated." Hiruzen said as he took his seat. Naruto sat down opposite to him and removed the lid covering a bowl.

"Lucky for you, I made seven layered tea this morning. Wanna give it a try?" Naruto asked as he sunk his hand in the bowl up to his wrist. When he lifted his hand from the bowl, Hiruzen saw that his hand was wet from water and he had rice in his hand. He heard from his Anbu about Rijuan's habit of consuming fermented rice in the morning. Sometime he ate them with onion and other time with green chilies. "Granted, it doesn't hold a candle to rainbow tea and is not that pretty to look at considering it only takes condensed milk, sugar, and water and tea liquor to make it, it still tastes good. And I am sure you will be really fascinated when you see the rainbow tea."

Unusual recipes for food and drinks were plus for the boy. Some of his dishes are very delicious. "I can't say that I ever tried that."

"Hey cook, you heard the old man!?"

"Tell him to be prepared to be amazed!"

Moments later, the cook clone brought a glass mug and placed in front of him. Hiruzen could see the layers that formed inside the glass. He took the mug and took a sip from it.

"So what's on our agenda?" Naruto asked after shoving few fistful of rice in his mouth.

"First, I want to congratulate you on your passing the test Mr. Asahiko gave you. You scored seventy three percent which is remarkable considering you only had two weeks to prepare yourself." Hiruzen said as he set down the cup for a moment. He unsealed a file from the storage seal in his sleeve and pushed it to Naruto. Cook clone took the file and started going through it. "And this file contains your official record. You should take a look at page twenty four first."

Cook clone opened the page and held it in front of Naruto. He looked over the page carefully as he continued his eating. After he was done reading, he gave an approving nod and looked at Hiruzen. "This story is equally unbelievable to mine but it explains change in behavior without raising any red flag. With Mr. Inoichi's testimony, it's irrefutable." Cook closed the file and handed it back to Hiruzen. He went back to kitchen with his temporary task of holding the file for his original to read done.

Hiruzen drained the cup of its content and set it down. "The story you wrote, sure you said that you copied it from somewhere. But I am sure a fair amount of it came out of your mind. Which makes me wonder as to why you didn't come up with this story yourself?"

"I did think about telling the same thing written in this file. But who would've vouched for me?" Naruto licked his fingers clean before washing his hand inside the bowl. "I wasn't sure if you were aware of absence of this made up function of Eight Trigram Seal. I still could've pushed for this story but after my encounter with Fu in my inner world, I didn't want to take the chance of another mind-walker backed by an authoritative figure storming my inner world and bring something to the forefront I don't want to remember in the name of investigation. So I came clean about it when Jiraiya came to meet me."

So the boy _did_ think about lying. If he lied, Hiruzen would've been wary of Naruto for sure but he still would've thought him as Naruto with experience from past life. Sure, he would've been tempted about going through with a thorough mind scan regardless but in the end, guilt from his failure at providing the boy with a happy childhood and unknowingly making an honest soul to experience the mistreatment would've stopped him. And then there would be the fear of unknown.

Hiruzen broke out of his musing when he heard a groan coming from Naruto. He looked at him to see him gripping left side of his head and his face contorted in pain. Hiruzen was alarmed. Naruto never suffered any sudden bout of pain. He was about to stand up and take the boy to hospital. But his worry lessened when Naruto's face returned to normal and his breathing evened. "Naruto, what happened? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I am okay." Naruto answered as he rubbed his temple. "Just some of my training clones dispelled at once."

"My boy, I think you should limit the number of your shadow clones." Naruto gave him a look that said ' _are-you-serious_ '.

"Between the two of us, who found the way around Shadow Clone Jutsu's backlash?"

Hiruzen grimaced at the question. It hurt his pride when he thought about it. He was a student of Lord Tobirama himself and he learned Shadow Clone Jutsu from its creator. But it took decades and a reincarnated boy to find an effective solution for the backlash from overusing this jutsu.

"Since you wanted to focus on your study for your evaluation exam," It's better to change subject than answering Naruto's question. Beside both of them knew the answer. "I didn't make arrangement for you to be tutored. But now that the test is over, I am going to appoint you one. The person I have in mind should be arriving in the village before this evening. Barring any serious injury, you will be meeting him tomorrow."

"Who did you decide on?"

"Kakashi Hatake. He is a highly experienced jounin. He was in Anbu until recently. He is very skilled even though he is a bit eccentric."

Hiruzen thought long and hard on this matter. He thought about appointing Ebisu for the role at first. He was professional and had excellent skill in term of teaching. But Ebisu was one of those people who disliked Naruto. If he was appointed as his tutor, no doubt Rijuan would pick up on his dislike and he would make displeasure known in some ways until his tutor was changed. Since he was putting most of his time and effort in chakra control, he thought about Kurenai. With genjutsu being her specialty she would've made a superb tutor for the young man. But the special jounin was hired by Hiashi few months ago to teach his eldest. Between her time with the Hyuga heiress, usual missions and her own training for the rank of jounin, she had very little time for taking another student. Then he thought about Kakashi. For last 2 years he was pushing the masked jounin to take a genin team and none of the teams he tested passed. His fellow jounins commented that he was still hung up on his losses. Every person came into contact with, left the mortal realm. He might not say it but Hiruzen knew that Kakashi think of himself as cursed after Minato and Kushina died. That was why he didn't put any pressure on him to take care of Naruto when the orphan boy needed it. He did plan on putting Naruto under his care after he had passed his graduation exam. It wouldn't hurt to make them acquainted with each other sooner. Seeing how Rijuan lost his family one after another at an impressionable age and came to term with it, he might be able help the Copy-nin to get over his loss.

There was another motive behind his decision too. Other 2 aforementioned candidates might be exceptionally skilled when it comes to their fields; Kakashi was leagues above them. Among this generation, there are only 2 who could be considered for the Hokage mantle by the Daimyo if Jiraiya refuses and Tsunade continues her binge gambling; Kakashi because of his skill and fame and his son Asuma because of his time in Daimyo's court and heritage. When Rijuan touched his feet, placed his palm on his chest, kissed it and swept it over his scalp, he knew his loyalty has been earned. If either Kakashi or Asuma can manage to earn his loyalty to that degree, Naruto will doubtlessly become a permanent member of Leaf village when he passed the hat to either one of them.

"People say he will be late to his own funeral. Is this true in any way, shape or form?"

Hiruzen had the sudden urge to hit his face with his palm. Only few weeks and Rijuan had already heard about the lazy jounin's reputation. From what Jiraiya told him, he knew the young blonde wouldn't have any problem with Kakashi's habit of reading _fine literature_ but the boy showed distaste to wasting time. He hoped Kakashi wouldn't give any of those lame excuses to Rijuan. He had seen what he made Sasuke do for losing a bet. The pseudo-child was merciless in his humiliation of the actual child. The young Uchiha would be a laughing stock of the village for a long time. He didn't want another one of his ninja being subjected to same kind of horror.

' _Or perhaps it could be a blessing in disguise if Rijuan does that.'_ He lost count how many times Kakashi was late in meetings and he wanted to throttle him after he spouted those outrageously lame excuses.

* * *

XoxoX

* * *

"Naruto, what is it called?" Chouji asked as I shared the celebratory food with our group.

"It's called garlic bread." I answered.

Since the day after revelation, boys of our group were at a loss about how they should act around me. Before that, they chalked up the change as Naruto becoming mature. But after that, they were confused as to whether to treat me like before or as a big-brother figure. I didn't have any problem with either one really. So after I had told them in one of our group lunch that they didn't have to be so indecisive about it; things returned to normal.

"You know what would make this more enjoyable?" None of our group had to ponder on Kiba's question as he continued after taking a bite from his piece of bread. "If Sasuke- _chan_ served us."

Yes, for the first of seven days of him being my slave, I dressed Sasuke up the day after revelation as a girl. Not just any girl, I dressed him in a maid outfit. With light blush on his cheek, purple eye shadow, red eyeliner, mascara and hot pink lipstick, he was a sight to behold. To complete the image, I taped two eggs over his chest. Poor guy couldn't even let them to be broken in any way. To top it off, I made him attend class dressed like that. The whole time we were in the academy, the girls (minus Hinata of course) gave me the meanest glare they could master and some of the guys sent appreciative look Sasuke's way. He is going to have some fan-boys this time around. He wouldn't have any problem with finding a partner if he swings the other way. Or both.

"You have to admit, he would've made a really cute girl, only if he didn't glare so much."

"Do you like girls with black hair, Naruto?"

"There better be something great in a girl with black hair. Poets of our nation idolized and revered black haired women in hundreds of poems with thousands of metaphors. To be frank, I don't see why they needed to do that considering we didn't have any other option when it came to women's hair. I saw maybe three people in my whole life, one of them girl, who didn't have black hair and all of them were albinos."

"All of your people had black hair?" Chouji looked around the playground. No doubt he was thinking about how there could be only one hair color in whole nation. Though black was the dominant hair color in our group, we had other colors too. I was blonde this time around. Chouji and Kiba's hair was brown and Hinata's indigo, which is going to turn black somehow. There were more colors around the playground. Green, blue, purple and let's not forget the pink. Sometime I wondered why there were so many hair colors in this world. Maybe it's because human of this world evolved from a hybrid variety of monkey. Or maybe the Anunakis fucked with our genetics when they came to Earth to find gold.

"Indians, a generalized term to refer to the people from our sub-continent, had strong genes when it came to hair and eye color; black and brown respectively. But people with different eyes were more common than people with different hair color." And it was. Counting those three albinos; I saw 4, maybe 6 more people who didn't have brown eyes. "One stand-up comedian named Maz Jobrani said in one his performance that no matter your gender or ethnicity, if you marry an indian, your children will come out indian. He married an indian woman and all his children looks indian. One of his friend wasn't indian and neither was his wife. They just had indian food once while she was pregnant. Months later, their child came out indian." This should've been suspicious instead of funny. "Anyway come to my place tomorrow before noon. We are celebrating."

"What is the cause for celebration?" Like usual, we _almost_ forgot that Shino was there with us.

"I got accepted at Suizei School of Engineering. I will be attending their class in September." I gave them a soft smile as I broke the news. "The old man arranged for me to stay at Royal Army Barrack. Normally it takes four years to complete bachelor. But with shadow clones, I am sure I won't have any problem shortening the time somewhat."

"You will be gone for a long time." Since we gathered for our lunch, this was the first thing Hinata said. After that day, she barely spoke to any of us unless spoken to and the guys were unsure about what to talk to her about. This turned her into a silent member of our group. Granted she wasn't loud before but between the time I left hospital and the evening I told them about my situation, she started to talk more. As a young girl in her situation, the best thing to do would be to give her time and space. My stay at the capital thus my absence in the village would provide her that. Hopefully our group will help her come out of her shell while I would be gone.

"I will be back in Leaf when I get a vacation. And it's not like you guys won't have any way to write to me."

Rest of our lunch passed in silence. When the bell rang we stood up and made our way to the classroom. I stopped in front of the sliding door and told the gang to go inside. I had something to tell Sasuke.

"Sasuke, we need to talk. Got a minute?" I told the avenger when he neared the door.

"If you want to make me dress up as a girl, then forget it. I am not doing it." He tried to shove past me but I held firm. He looked me into my eyes with a look that could've burnt me with Amaterasu if he had the mangekyou. Which I was countering with a look that I am sure said ' _I don't give a fuck_ '.

I ended our staring contest with a sigh. "I just wanted to soften the blows of being my bitch for six more days." Time to dangle the carrot it seems. With quick sensory scan, I was sure there weren't any Root-nin nearby to overhear me. "I thought I would tell you the truth behind your clan's massacre. But since you are not interested, I guess I just wasted my time gathering those clues and evidences." I gesticulated to emphasize my offer.

"Wait." I didn't even turn 60 degrees before he caught me by my shoulder. "Tell me the truth."

"You should not make demands of someone when you don't have anything to trade for." I chastised the kid. "Beside it's hardly the right place or time to tell you."

"Allright. When are you going to tell me?"

"I would've told you about it this afternoon but since you were rude just seconds ago, I changed my mind."

It was not like I was dying to tell him the truth. Sure I wanted to get this over with. It took all the knowledge of stealth in Naruto's arsenal to gather the necessary documents. Pulling out those files from Anbu archive was hard enough already and I would have to break in there for a second time to put those files there after the group of clones charged with the task of copying them without being seen. If they were found in possession of me or my clone, all the deals with Hiruzen was off. The least punishment I would receive is jail sentence. But with some of those information being vital, I would be branded as a spy and I am NOT looking forward to what would come after that.

I knew I would have to face Danzo in near future but I planned on keeping my confrontation with the old mummy limited to mostly from opposite sides of table. I know that bastard had experience on me which was why I have no plan on fighting him head on unless attacked. That's why I needed Sasuke to train his ass off to become powerful enough to be an even match for him. I might have made a strategy to deliver the first blow but I don't have sharingan to counter his Izanagi. Like a cat, that bastard got nine lives with two more on the house. I might be able to land killing blow 2 or 3 times when fighting after I have acquired enough skill. But frankly my motivation in fighting him would be half-hearted at best. Sasuke on the other hand... He is a problem child. With the _'revised truth'_ I concocted with help of those stolen files and some probable hypotheses, his drive would be monumental. After that, my work would be to convince him to stick with my suggestion and keep him from going after Danzo right away. With his target being inside the village wall and some power boost I think I can give him, he would have less reason to go rogue. Since there was still a little bit of love for his brother in him, my plan was to nudge him to clean Itachi's name after Danzo had been dealt with. Being able to reunite with his loving and only brother in near future would make a far better motivation than revenge.

"What do you want in exchange?" Sasuke said through gritted teeth and with his fists clenched.

"Oh nothing much." I waved my hand like it was nothing of importance. Well, to me it wasn't. "For second of the seven days, you will have to take one of your fangirl out on a date. If you do, I will tell you everything I have gathered after your shift in our stall at Star Festival is over. In place where no one will overhear us."

"You want me to go on a date with a girl?"

"Yes I do. And your date has to know that it's a date." Iruka was coming our way. Next period was his class on history. I turned to enter the classroom. "If you don't have someone in particular in mind and don't want to go through the hassle of choosing, I can do it for you. I will give all of them equal chance."

* * *

XoxoX

* * *

"You know, sometime I think you have started to improve in your grades for free ramen." Iruka said as he eyed the pile of empty ramen bowls next to me. Till now, he has offered me free ramen if I get good grade on certain subjects. So far, I missed only one, literature. Seriously, who would've thought that there was a Lord Byron-equivalent in ninja world? Reading his classic language reminded me of that one time I tried to read a classic Bangla novel. It might sound really ridiculous, but I swear it by the God and everything holy that just after 18 pages I felt like my jaw was going to fall off. I didn't even move my lips to read for God's sake! If mid-19th century's Bangla could give me this much pain, is it any wonder that I would be measurable in classic literature of this world and land?

"Don't underestimate the motivational power of free food, sensei." I said after slurping down broth from my now finished bowl. "Why do you think human struggle so much? Why do you think they wage war? They do it so that they can feed themselves and their families. If someone is offered free food, why wouldn't he take the opportunity? Since the beginning of creation, hunger has been what drove us and it will continue to be the driving force of all living being until the end of time." I finished my speech with a sagely nod and raised hands.

Carefully, Iruka chewed the noodle in his mouth and downed it with a gulp. Then he burst out laughing. Teuchi and Ayame, who were trying there hardest to stifle their laughter, joined him immediately.

"Naruto, your theatrics needs more work." Iruka said in between his laughter. "Maybe you should take lessons from graduating year students. I heard they are doing a play in Star Festival."

"We are doing something for star festival too." I replied. "Our group is going to open up a stall in festival."

"What are you gonna do? Game or food?" Ayame asked.

"You remember the sweet I gave you?" She nodded at my question. "We are going to sell that in our stall."

"That sweet was really good. I hope you make a good sell." Teuchi said with small smile. "And don't forget to come get some ramen. We are organizing a ramen eating contest."

"Don't worry about me coming. I won't miss the contest. I did my part in cooking the sweet. So I don't need to be at the stall. Now it's all up to the guys for selling. Considering Sasuke is going to be a waiter in our stall for that day and his fangirls will no doubt swarm our stall from start to finish, we will make a killing."

"Speaking of Sasuke," Iruka gave me a stern look as he started. "Did you really have to humiliate him like that?"

"I didn't have to. But if I didn't; he wouldn't learn not to pick fight with someone just because he insulted him. He knew what it's gonna cost him if he loses his fight, so it's all on him."

Of course he protested when I told him what he would have to do for the first of the seven days. But when I pointed to him the clause that said winner can demand monetary compensation if losing party refuses, he shut up. It helped that I said I would demand 10 million ryus for each day. His quiet reluctance said that he wasn't ready to part with this much money.

"So sensei, what's your plan for the festival?"

"Nothing much really." Iruka said with a defeated sigh. "Going out for a bit to watch the fireworks. Then go back home and sleep." He was stirring his ramen slowly as he said that.

"Sensei, by any chance, are you single?" Well, Iruka was single when Naruto got married in cannon. But that doesn't mean he had to be single off-screen in pre-Naruto timeline.

"Naruto," he rubbed the back of his neck. "Working as a teacher and sometimes in bureaucracy doesn't give me much free time to find a girlfriend."

"Bullshit." I retorted to his excuse. "A lot of people work as much as you do and they can find themselves a girlfriend. I mean Mizuki-sensei got a girlfriend. Then why can't you?"

"Umm, it's.. it's because…"

"Are you afraid of talking to girls?" I teased the young chunin.

"Well.. um.. you know…" this time a light pink dusted his cheeks and ears.

"Hey Ayame," If Iruka is too shy to ask a girl out, then why not give him a hand? "Do you have any plan for the festival?"

"Well, I do have work in the stall. A contest is a lot of works after all."

"Well don't worry about it. I will help your old man with the contest while you enjoy your date with Iruka-sensei." My offer of help and proposal on behalf of Iruka made her blush and stammer. "Say you don't have a boyfriend, do you? Because that would suck for sensei."

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Iruka's scolding would've been stern if he wasn't blushing. "I am sorry for what he said. You don't have to go on a date with me."

"Are you saying Ayame isn't pretty enough for you to want to date?" I said with fake gasp. "And in front of her dad no less!" Now Iruka was stammering harder than before.

"Is this true Iruka?" Teuchi joined this time with an angry visage. "Are you saying my Ayame is ugly?"

"No, no, no. I didn't mean it that way."

"Are you saying you are out of my daughter's league?"

"No."

"Then it's settled." As a father of the girl, Teuchi passed his verdict. "To prove that you don't think my daughter is unattractive, you are taking her out on a date on the festival. And I expect her home before ten and nothing inappropriate from you."

"Okay." No matter how strong a ninja you are, you are no match for a girl's angry father, Iruka.

The Ichirakus and Iruka were there early in Naruto's life who accepted Naruto for who he was. Although it took an attack by Waterfall ninjas for Iruka to see Naruto as just another boy, Naruto was cool with it. I have no qualm with him either. So if there is any chance that I can bring those people closer then why won't I take it? Unknowingly, I showed Sasuke what Sakura might look like in the future and nudged him to her direction subtly. Many fanfics paired Iruka with Anko. But I am yet to meet Orochimaru's former student. So I have to make do with Ayame. What harm is going to happen if this couple work out in the future? That way they wouldn't be single by the time I will bring Bor …my kids to Ichiraku's.

My friends _back home_ sometimes called me half-robot because of the way I think. But even if I was a full robot, I doubt I will lose my fondness for all things romantic.

* * *

XoxoX

* * *

Note: If anyone wants to know about 7 Layered tea and Rainbow tea, just search on Google or YouTube.

 **TEASER**

 **"After what Itachi did, shinobis of this village is rather wary of child prodigies. It's a good thing you never boasted about it."**

* * *

 **Since _ _ _ won't accept any other answer even if they were true; yes, I am doing all this to save _ for me in the future. And if you so much as breathe even a letter of what I said just now, I will do anything in my power to make sure it's _ who ends up becoming _ _. You don't want that, do you?**

* * *

 **If Kakashi had a job besides being a ninja, what would it be?**

 **If someone asked me this question _back home_ , then my answer would've been Dog Caretaker. For obvious reason.**

 **But as I glanced at the pile of notes I was carrying, I thought that it couldn't be any more different.**


	13. New Teacher

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.**

* * *

OxoxO

* * *

In one of Tagore's poem, he described morning dew to be one of the most beautiful sight he has ever seen. I agree with him wholeheartedly. After all, it was the only reason I got out from the comfort of blanket during winter break, be it in village or in capital. After enjoying the marvelous sight, I would go back to bed to sleep in until ten.

But at the moment, I wasn't standing in the middle of the training ground for just the sight. For last few days, this time in the morning had been dedicated to practice chakra control exercises that would help me in regard to training my water affinity. Hiruzen said that he would tell Kakashi to train me in water style. When he said I could probably learn lower rank water jutsus by myself with instruction scrolls only, I felt really flattered. He wanted me to start with water style because the most harm I will do if I screw up a water jutsu unsupervised, namely putting a crap load of chakra, was to drown myself. If the same thing happens with a wind style jutsu, buying new clothes would be the least of my worries. So learning anything remotely to do with wind had to wait until I was in the capital. Before he went to his office, he asked for my notebook on chakra control exercises. He marked the helpful exercises at index and added few pointers in margin.

And so there I was, practicing Gathering Dew for the last two hours. This exercise is pretty advanced if you compare it to trying to raise water level of a lake because there is a lot of water for chakra to set in. On the other hand, chakra can scatter the few tenths of a milliliter of water in a dew drop and make them even smaller. So basically, this is more of an extreme chakra control exercise than refining water nature. And it was F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-I-N-G.

To consider this exercise successful, I had to attract dewdrops to my palm _at the same time_. This was hard to do because of micro chakra field I had to create on my palm had to be equal in power. Otherwise dewdrops won't hover up at same time. Honestly this step wasn't necessary but since I was after perfecting chakra control as much as possible, Jiraiya added it on the side note.

After another failed attempt, I looked at the horizon. Not much time was left before sunrise; the sky had already started to get red tinge. I had half an hour at most to practice before dewdrops started to evaporated.

"I see you are hard at work." My head whipped to the source of that unfamiliar voice. The person standing there was none other than the mummy motherfucker I wished I didn't meet face to face on this planet, Danzo **fookin** Shimura.

My hands automatically went up to start the handseal series for body flicker. But before I could make the second handseal, Danzo appeared in front of me in the blink of an eye. "Don't you think it's rude to attack someone who doesn't have any ill-will towards you?" Danzo said in a calm voice while he kept my hands in his tight grip, not giving me any chance to continue. My fight or flight sense screamed and on pure instinct, I performed a seal-less substitution with Danzo's walking stick; which was left stuck on ground when he jumped to catch me.

"Who are you?" I have gone over scenarios where I would come face to face with this man and in every single one of them I planned to feign ignorance about his identity. Thank the God my mouth didn't betray me at a time like this.

"It's good to see that your reaction is fast. You have making of a powerful shinobi." From my position, I could only see his back. I would've liked to see his reaction for getting his stick back in his hand this way. "I am Danzo Shimura, one of the advisers to the Hokage." He turned back to face me as he finished his sentence.

"What business would an esteemed member of Leaf's hierarchy have with me?" Okay, so he is not here to play hostile villain. That means he is going for manipulation right now. And speaking of manipulation… ' _Hey Shiku, you in there?_ ' if there was someone I would trust to detect any form of sharingan genjutsu it would be Kurama, other than having experience in being put under its influence he was within my…..belly's reach.

' ** _What now?_** '

' _Danzo is here._ ' In one of our conversations, I mentioned about Danzo and his possible plans regarding me, and by extension Kurama, to him. Needless to say, he didn't like the fact that there was another asshole with sharingan running around who is _much_ interested in keeping him under his control.

' ** _I will look out for any kind of mind control jutsu._** '

' _Thanks, that would be enough for now._ '

' ** _Don't screw this up._** '

"I read the update in your file. It was interesting to read." Corner of his lips curved upward at seeing me narrow my eyes. "I am aware of the arrangement Hiruzen made to capitalize on this situation. If your loyalty didn't have such importance, all that he would've done was to provide a meager financial aid."

' _Is this guy for real?_ ' Was the thought that ran through my head. I know I wouldn't be the smartest guy in any kind of statistics, but I was not so stupid that I couldn't figure out Hiruzen's motive. One of his direct student decided to take me under his wing even though he should have, in all likelihood, refused to associate with me in any way. For next two months, I was going to be tutored by Kakashi, only living student of Minato( and still loyal to Leaf). Then there is arrangement of being taught by Asuma while in the capital. All this was a hopeful plot to give me familiar ties to keep me loyal to the village or failing that, to Fire Country. The only thing his offer didn't cover was a marriage contract.

"After what Itachi did, shinobis of this village is rather wary of child prodigies. It's a good thing you never boasted about it."

"Well you know what people say. Empty vessels sound much." I relaxed my posture as I said that. No need to start hostilities right now. "What still isn't clear to me is, what your agenda in all this is."

"You are a lot sharper than before your merging. It would be very helpful when you become Hokage." _Me, becoming Hokage?_ My surprise might have been evident on my face because for split second, I thought I saw a ghost of smile on his face. Probably, he thought he hit the jackpot. "Don't be surprised. Just like you, I wished to become Hokage too. But I wasn't as strong as Hiruzen, so I lost the race. You have a great source of power at your disposal. With a good head on your shoulder and power to make all the shinobi in this village obey you, you are guaranteed to become Hokage. If you accept my offer, I may be able to help you reach your goal few years earlier. As a loyal and responsible citizen of Hidden Leaf, I think it's my duty to help a young man who will be a great asset to this village one day." Like I would ever ask any kind of help from this guy.

"Your offer sounds sincere." It really did. But I know the kind of person he is. "I would've been inclined to accept your offer. But after my encounter with Fu, I think I will pass. Now if you would excuse me, I have to return to my apartment to get ready for the academy." I know it was dangerous to do, but I still turned around to walk away to show him that I am done with our conversation.

"Since you mentioned Fu, I think I recall a trait of yours he told me about. You can absorb and share chakra from and with others." I stopped in my track as he said this. A beads of sweat started gathering on my forehead. _Did he found out I am causing all the problem in his Root army?_ "For someone who had spent a lifetime without a drop of chakra in him, you are lucky to have this ability."

I let out a sigh of relief and turned around to face him when he didn't continue more on it. "And what of it? I am sure there are jutsus for this kind of task."

"True, there are a handful of jutsus that can do the same thing. But the fact that you can do it without those jutsus means it's your natural ability. It will be very valuable on and off battlefields."

"If you have read my file, I think you missed the part where it says I don't like beating around the bush. Why don't you just say what you want with me?"

"I came here to offer you a deal. I believe you have heard about the Bloodline Purge that's happening in Water Country." I nodded my reply. _If he is bringing up Bloody Mist's topic in this, he is going to offer me either a bloodline that I will have a hard time mastering it or one of the swords of the Seven Ninja Swordsman. Among those seven swords only Samehada can steal chakra from a shinobi and pass it on to its wielder. It is a sentient, greedy, oversized sword and I am not a fan of it. I doubt any of his Root soldiers will come back alive if they try to take it from Kisame._ "Last year one my agent in that country came across a wielder of an interesting bloodline. It is a visual bloodline that allows its user to redirect chakra of anyone in his line of sight. Since the shinobi died in fight against his pursuers, my agent thought it prudent to bring his eyes to the Leaf. If you agree to my offer, I will have my best medic implant one of those eyes in you."

Wow! That was an offer too good to pass on. Sure I know Danzo will probably try to turn me into one of his mindless drones but since I know about his method it might not actually…. A shock ran through my core before I could finish my thought.

' _Thanks Shiku, I owe you one._ ' I said to Kurama through our mental link. I looked up at Danzo. He was sporting a very thin smile on his face. I wonder what his reaction would be when realizes that his sharingan hypnosis didn't work on me. "Your offer is too tempting. In fact it's too good to pass. But I am rather attached to my eyes. So I guess I am not taking you up on it." That thin smile vanished from his face at my answer. "The best answer I can give you that if I ever lose one of my eyes, I might need the eye you are talking about. Until that happens, I am not interested in running around with an eye salvaged from a corpse."

I said the last bit to throw a bone. Otherwise, he would hit me with a stronger hypnotic genjutsu.

* * *

OxoxO

* * *

 _'This ought to be interesting_.' Kakashi said to himself as he continued observing Naruto from atop the tree he was perching on. The blonde kid has gathered all of his female classmates on the rooftop after the academy was finished for the day.

Kakashi knew something was up when mission office gave him only C-rank missions for last few weeks. Some of them were considered to be C-rank only because of distance. He didn't get this long streak of nothing but C-ranks in a long time. Seriously weren't there any people to clean up farms in those places? His suspicion was confirmed when he returned from his last mission the day before with sprained ankle. After doing so many boring missions in a row, he intended to use his injury to stay off duty for a week or two before returning to active duty. Maybe he would get a nice, long infiltration mission after that. But Lord Third had something else in his mind to make use of his time it seemed.

The aged leader informed him about his next assignment after he finished his report. Tutoring Naruto Uzumaki until September. He was surprised when he heard it but was curious about the time limit. When he asked Hiruzen about it, he handed him the record on Naruto and said the child has gone through a significant change in recent weeks. This situation prompted Hiruzen to act before the village lost Naruto's loyalty.

Kakashi returned to his apartment with his head full of thoughts. Most of them were regarding his would-be student. He was so engrossed in his thought that he almost forgot about the file sealed in scroll he brought from Hiruzen.

People may not know it, but he used to watch Naruto from distance. A habit he picked up from his occasional guard duty on Naruto from his Anbu days. He knew about the boy's character very clearly. There are very few things that could be in that file he didn't know. He had an idea about what kind of changes happen to people in the same position as Naruto. So he decided to forego going over the record and see those changes that happened in time of his absence in the village for himself. If he saw something in him that didn't make any sense, then he would check the file. If he was lucky, then he would be able to stop Naruto from going too far.

But then he remembered Hiruzen's suggestion. ' _It would be best if you observe him before I arrange your meeting. Only four people know about what really brought about the change in his character, Naruto included. And only Naruto himself knows the extent of it._ '

And that was what Kakashi was doing since the morning. From his observation he found out some new things about Naruto. He had become studious. He knows shadow clone jutsu and seemed to be aware of memory relay function. His endurance and stamina was like it was before and he seemed serious about getting past his limit judging by the logbook he records the number of repetitions of exercises he does in. he spent more time for chakra control exercise than he did for physical exercise. And what the hell did he eat for breakfast? Anyway, now the silverette was watching his sensei's son doing something to spite the Uchiha standing beside him, if the look of hatred in Uchiha Survivor's eyes was anything to go by.

"Okay girls, listen up." Naruto started after clearing his throat to get the girls' attention but they were too busy fawning over the black haired preteen. "This might be the only chance in your lifetime to go on a date with our resident heart-throb, your precious Sasuke. So shut up and listen carefully." That did the trick.

It was really embarrassing to watch the fan-girls. When Kakashi was in the academy, fan-girls were only a concept found in manga. Every day was a day to wake up and worry about the rising tension among hidden villages. Girls were too worried about surviving a coming war to waste their time fawning over a pretty boy who might not return from battlefield alive or whole. Especially when there was no guarantee if both parties would live long enough to go on more than one date. When young kunoichis heard about the tragic death of Dan Kato in the arms of Tsunade, still a prominent medic in that time, this worry only intensified. But after a decade long peace with no conflict and other villages minding their own business, that annoying concept from manga became a part of reality.

"This is what's going to happen." The girls were paying rapt attention to Naruto now who held up a stack of paper he took out of his bag. "These are agreement forms for the whole thing. You fill up these forms if you agree to the rules I am laying out. When you return your form, you will write your names on a paper and then fold them and place them inside this." The blonde showed a plastic can to the crowd in front of him. It was a white, non-see-through can. "After everyone put their name in, I will shake the can, drop the papers and pick one. Whoever's name is written on it, get to go on a date with Sasuke. And for the record I am doing this only once. So if your name doesn't come up, don't badger me to do it for a second time. Now girls, pass the forms."

Within minutes the forms were distributed, signed and names were put in the can. After Naruto shook the can and dropped the names, he seemed to be at loss as which slip of paper to pick. Finally he picked one and unfolded it. Tension among the girls could be touched at the moment. "Ahem." Naruto faked a cough to cut the tension after he read the name on it. "The winner of this lottery is Sakura Haruno."

"Yes!" A girl with pink hair screeched loudly at the result. Guess this one was the lucky girl. He made a mental note to observe the girl when it would be time for this batch's graduation. If she or any of the girl present didn't make any improvement, he would ask the Hokage politely to not put any kunoichi in his team. Now why was he thinking about taking up a genin team? Well, Hiruzen hinted that if he could form good relation with Naruto, then he would be chosen as his jonin instructor.

"Sakura, would you mind staying back for a little while?" _Now what tips is Naruto going to give the girl?_ "You can go home now, Sasuke. You have preparations to make for your big date tomorrow." Sasuke stormed off as soon as the words left Naruto's mouth. Kakashi couldn't fault the boy, he clearly needed more mental prepare to deal with a love-struck fangirl.

"Naruto, what are you doing!? You should've asked Sasuke to take me home!"

Naruto stayed silent for a moment before letting out a sigh. "I regret choosing you for his date."

"You didn't choose me! You just picked the paper I wrote my name on."

"Oh really? Can you read your name then?" Sakura took the paper from Naruto's offered hand.

"Sakura Haruno." The girl was confused. When Naruto said he _chose_ Sakura for Sasuke's date, Kakashi suspected he just picked a paper and said Sakura's name. But if the paper contained the girl's name, it means he marked her paper when she dropped it in the can and picked it after opening it. "This is my name alright."

"But is that your hand writing?" this question silenced her. She examined the paper closely.

"Naruto, you chose me." Sakura was smiling after she looked up. She was so happy that she was about to cry. "I… I don't know what to say!"

"Sorry to burst your bubble but you should know that I arranged this whole only-chance-for-dating thing for a reason. And I could've chosen any girl from our class for that."

The girl visibly deflated from his words. "Then why did you choose me?"

"When your prince charming reaches adulthood, there is a chance village council will force him to get married and father children. Any girl who can make a strong impression on him before that, will have a better chance to be selected as his bride. But if Sasuke doesn't have any preference in that regard, it's likely the council will select his bride. For other clans, it will be a good opportunity to raise their status and there are two clan heiress who are at same age as him, you know them, right?" with each sentence the pinkette became aware of odds stacked against her. She gave a hesitant nod at Naruto's question. "If Sasuke decides to go for social standing, then he would choose either Ino or Hinata. Now, I don't care much about Ino's chance with him but I have seen how other Hyugas treat Hinata. If I am not wrong, at least one of their elders is already eyeing the opportunity and when it comes, they will try their hardest to wash their hands off their clan's disappointment. And no way in hell, I will ever let that happen." He brought out a hairband with 2 red, hornlike protrusion on it and a roll of paper. "I chose you for his date because among all of his fangirls, you have the best academic score. However keep in mind, there are other parameters for being a competent kunoichi beside good academic score. If you can't improve on them, then I doubt Sasuke would think of you as less useless." He handed the hairband and papers to the puzzled girl.

She looked at the hairband and then back at Naruto. Her confusion faded after few seconds. "You want me to dress like _that!_?" the girl screeched with a prominent blush on her cheeks. What _that_ meant Kakashi had no solid clue but if the girl was blushing then it was little to nothing.

"That form had pink hair and green eyes like you. If you wear this hairband and put red eyeliner, you can probably make Sasuke try to hide his blush. And you have issue with dressing like that for your prince charming?" The girl sputtered at the question. "Relax, I don't mean you have to start dressing like that this early."

"And what about this?" Sakura asked waving the papers after she calmed down a bit.

"For every kid, his or her mother is the best woman in the world. Everything I could find out about Sasuke's mother is written on those papers." Naruto slung his bag over his shoulder and started walking after replying. "I gave you a chance to go on a date with your dream boy. Now it's up to you to make him want to go out on more dates."

"Hey Naruto!" Sakura called out when Naruto was about to leave the roof. He looked back at the girl who now sported a teasing smile on her face. "Since you are doing all this for Hinata, does that mean you like her?"

Naruto stood silent for few seconds before letting out a long sigh. He walked over to Sakura who clearly thought she hit the jackpot. However, her smile gave away to fear when Naruto brought out a kunai from his back pouch and held its flat side under her jaw.

"Since your fangirl brain won't accept any other answer even if they were true; yes, I am doing all this to save Hinata for me in the future. And if you so much as breathe even a letter of what I said just now, I will do anything in my power to make sure it's Ino who ends up becoming Mrs. Uchiha. You don't want that, do you?"

"N-No."

"Good. I am glad we have an understanding." Naruto said with an obvious fake smile after he put away his kunai.

* * *

OxoxO

* * *

If Kakashi had a job besides being a ninja, what would it be?

If someone asked me this question _back home_ , then my answer would've been Dog Caretaker. For obvious reason.

But as I glanced at the pile of notes I have gathered, I thought that it couldn't be any more farther than my imagination. But then again, I was satisfied with fanfic writers' work for imagination. In most modern AUs, he would be either an investigator or a member of some gang. I never expected him to be an engineer.

In Fire Country, children of military personnel gets quota advantage when it comes to higher education. There are more things taken into consideration for this quota but as (Pseudo) child prodigy, my seat at any department of Suizei was as well as confirmed. Suizei was MIT equivalent of this part of Elemental Nations and every year more than 50 students come here to study from abroad. So I was a bit skeptical about my chance until I opened a scroll Hiruzen gave me before leaving when he visited to give me the good news. Apparently the news had leaked that a child prodigy was coming to Suizei to study engineering and almost every head of department wanted me to enroll in their department.

I was in a dilemma for a short while as to which department to choose. Back in Bangladesh, when my admission in Ahsanullah School of Engineering was confirmed, I chose Computer Engineering. I choose this course because of every graduating batch, top 3 graduates were offered position of lecturer there and I wanted to be a teacher just like my uncle and aunt. Besides, I and my friends tried our hands in programming for few years already. By the time we cleared our higher secondary, we were skilled in at least one programming language. Because of this my friends chose engineering courses other than CSE; they had no interest in studying something they learned from practical experience.

But Naruto-verse was years away from inventing Python and most computers still ran on DOS command. I only knew how to _code_ in python and I don't have to say it that I saw DOS only in documentaries.

So now, I had to choose a course other than CSE. But which one? That was easy. With Fire Country's growing economy and the need for electricity to fuel this growth; Electrical Engineering offered the brightest opportunity.

When I told Hiruzen about my decision, he gave a nod of approval and handed me an address. He suggested that I go through the records there. They were likely to help cut down my time to graduate.

Turns out the address belonged to Hidden Leaf Graduate Archive, a non-profit organization and records kept in this place were class notes, journals and theses contributed by all ninjas who pursued higher studies.

In Warring States Era, Nara clan had the most college graduates and twice as many dropouts. After Hidden Leaf was formed, Second Hokage, then secretary to First Hokage, approached them with proposal of establishing this archive. Seeing that it was a time of relative peace and none of their study materials were clan secret (and I suspect mostly because it would need less legwork; unlike policing the whole village), Naras agreed. The archive was established and to this day, it was managed by Nara clan. Soon after its establishment, graduates from other clans submitted their notes and theses here.

Employees here didn't make a fuss when I entered the building. All of them were Naras and none of them hated me. Because hateful feeling keep people awake and no Nara would ever consider to stay awake more than necessary. I feel for Temari after she marries Shikamaru. No wonder she had bitch mode on in Boruto.

And when I was going through the notes, I found Kakashi's notes on Electrical Engineering. Yes, Kakashi was a certified electrical engineer; a graduate from Suizei to boot. Underneath his name, his designation said **Investigation Engineer, National Board of Electrification**.

Anyway, this place was huge and housed more than 5 thousands notes and theses. Like any other library, they were sorted according to subject. Every day, dozens of off-duty ninjas came here to study from these academic materials. Some did their study here but most of them chose to make copies of necessary notes. You would have no problem studying here but when you need to copy something, you would have to fill up a form. Like I was doing at the moment.

Power Plant Engineering, Kakashi Hatake.

Long Distance Communication, Fumio Yamanaka.

Mathematics and Physics, Minato Namikaze.

Bamboo Cultivation, Hashirama Senju.

Fast Growth of Crops, Kinoe.

Crystals, Orochimaru.

There were few more that my clones brought here. Being a knowledge enthusiast, I felt like being in an all-you-can-eat buffet. That was to be expected after having no internet and Google for this long.

When I asked Ensui, the nara in charge of Xerox machine if it was really necessary to fill up a form for copying, his answer had serious logic behind it.

 _"Kid, I am sure you heard the saying that Knowledge is Power. As the guy in charge of photocopy machines, I have to keep track of which power I handed to whom. This archive's only purpose might be to help ninjas in higher studies but any knowledge, no matter how insignificant it may look to one person, can be weaponized by someone else. Its perfect example is the writer of the last note you want a copy of. Fair warning though, don't let anyone older than fifteen to see that one."_

I nodded my head in understanding to what he said as it reminded me a story from colonial period. There was a saying among Hindus; I am saying 'was' because I don't know if it is still going strong; that goes like 'Smelling a dish is half the eating'. Once in 19th century, a hindu employee of a muslim landlord found his employer sniffing a lemon during Ramadan when he was fasting. Unable to restrain himself from cracking a joke, the employee quoted the saying and said since the lord sniffed the lemon, he ate half of it; thus his fast had been broken. The landlord didn't say a word. He delivered his counter punch line few months after Ramadan was over. He arranged a feast and invited all prominent figures of the region. After first course had been served, he ordered his servants to pull the flaps around the shamiana. Not even 30 yards from the shamiana, cooks were seasoning beef and the aroma wafted in when breeze passed by. In 19th century Indian subcontinent, hindus were the one usually going to schools set up by British. They got the education needed for government jobs. So you can say among those prominent figures, quite a few were Hindus. They got uncomfortable by beef's aroma. That was the time the landlord asked, looking at the aforementioned hindu employee, if they were still considered hindu since they had eaten half of beef. As it was 19th century, I am sure this incident had caused quite a havoc. If a saying could be taken advantage of this way, then who knows what could be done with theses archived here.

"You have gathered quite a collection." I looked up from the form to have a look at the person talking to me. When I entered the archive, other readers had kept their distance from me and when I set my selected materials down on my currently occupied table, they cleared from tables beside it. "But I wouldn't expect anything less from a child prodigy going to Suizei in electric. I am Sukea by the way and I am with NBE. Mind if take a seat at your table?"

"Naruto Uzumaki. But I guess you already know that." Sukea was man in his 20s with wavy brown hair. Two purple streaks from his lower eyelids to middle of his cheeks. He was carrying a fat manila folder and few notes. "You can sit here if you want, I won't mind."

"Came here to do some early studies?" Sukea set his staffs down as he asked.

"Yeah."

"I didn't know Suizei started teaching agriculture."

"They don't. It's for my hobby."

"That's.. a peculiar choice for a hobby."

"Not farming. My hobby is to know things." I took a peak at his notes. They were notes Civil Engineering, specifically about building dam. "So you are here to consult notes about hydroelectricity plant?" Sukea looked surprised by my question. I think he didn't expect me to put 2(NBE) and 2(Dam) together so quickly. And it would've been true. After all, only hydroelectric plant we had in Bangladesh was Kaptai and if it weren't for one question in general knowledge in 1st grade, many wouldn't have known about it.

"If it gets green signal from Daimyo's adviser, then it will be the biggest hydroelectric plant in Fire Country. Every engineer in NBE received a copy of its plan and doing thorough evaluation. Even a small mistake can ruin this multi-billion ryu project. So we going through any records we can find."

"Can I have a look at those?" When I combed through newspapers and magazines to have an understanding of current power sector, I found that Fire Country's rapidly growing need for electricity was taking a toll on this country's natural resources. Experts had estimated that if the current trend continues, our gas reserve will last for only another 30 years; same with coal and oil, give or take few years. So in last decade, NBE had been building dams here and there.

"Sure why not." Sukea handed me his manila folder. "And if you would be so kind then please don't tell anyone about it. It can cost me my job."

"If I am not wrong in my assumption," I replied as I pulled out papers from the folder. "then you should start thinking about how you will spend the raise you are going to get, Kakashi."

Yeah, I don't know much about dams. But I did watch episodes of Modern Marvel and Big, Bigger, Biggest on Hoover Dam and Three Gorges Dam respectively. The dams NBE built in last decades weren't near any of them in scale. If what Kakashi said was right, then this dam would be at least on the same scale as Grand Coulee.

* * *

OxoxO

* * *

20 minutes. That's how long Naruto had been looking over the plans for the latest Yamahime Hydroelectric Plant Project and during this time, Naruto hadn't uttered a single word.

After threatening the pinkette the day before, Naruto went to Graduate Archive. There Kakashi saw him going through various sections and picking notes from this shelf or that. After gathering a tower of notes that was as tall as him, he took them to a table and started going through them; with help from his shadow clones. With how diligently he was studying, Kakashi guessed that it would take at least 2 hours before he was done. So he left the boy to study and body flickered to archive's rooftop. There, he unsealed the file on Naruto.

The boy's file had more pages added to it in last few weeks than years before. First recent entry shattered his expectation. This Naruto was not the Naruto he guarded.

' _The subject had admitted to being a reincarnated soul. Even though, by his statement, any topic regarding reincarnation wasn't something he believed._ '

Apparently when Minato cast the Eight Trigram seal, his consciousness was sealed into the confines of his subconscious. But as a body needs a soul to be considered living, a part of him was let out of his binding. That partial soul grew up to be child Naruto. As time passed by his sealed conscious gained more and more access to his senses as the seal restricting him got weaker. However, instead of trying to seize control over physical body immediately, he choose to stay as a passive observer by taking in information about the predicament he found himself in. Finally on the day academy students were taught to access their chakra, he summoned his child persona and _merged_ him with himself. The sudden influx of spiritual energy was too much for his body. So his body went into coma due to Yin-Yang Imbalance. After he woke up from his coma, change in his behavior was noticeable. However it took a record of a root operative's memory to investigate the matter.

Everything that was written after that was bits and pieces of information regarding his past life. Few things stood out among them.

Well informed about latest inventions of science.

Activist on movements to popularize science.

Orphaned child of a military personnel.

Last one was eerily to Naruto's current situation. But where as in his past life he was lucky enough to be taken in by his aunt and uncle; there wasn't any one to take him in. Two lifetimes and orphaned in both.

All in all, his would be student wasn't someone normal. He was a mature person trapped in child's body. So he couldn't approach him like he would done with a genin.

And that's why when Kakashi saw Naruto pulling out notes on Power Plant Engineering today in archive; he remembered that he passed the special entrance evaluation exam for his Alma matter and chose to enroll in Electrical Engineering. Now they had something to start talk with. Immediately he made a beeline for his apartment to fetch the plan for Yamahime Hydroelectric Plant and to wear his disguise of Sukea persona.

And now he was watching Naruto reading the whole thing as he chewed on a candy bar.

"Whoever thought about putting a dam in this place; thought things through." Naruto said as he put the papers down.

"Before we talk about the dam; how did you know it was me?" this was bugging Kakashi since Naruto started reading. He never met Naruto in person, so there was no way he would know that it was him under disguise.

"You said you work in NBE and my files are highly restricted. The only person working in NBE who would have permission to read them would be you."

"I could be someone who overheard your conversation with your friend."

"None of them knows which course I chose."

' _The subject always gives honest answer. But how much he tells depends on questions asked. Since we have very little knowledge about his background and no countries or culture matches the description he gave us, it's easy to conclude that the era he lived in is lost in time._ '

"So you think this dam will be good project to undertake?"

"Well, building the dam is civil engineering and I have very little knowledge regarding this but there is something bugging me about this project. If I am not wrong then this dam will at least four time bigger than the current biggest one in Fire Country, right?"

"Yes."

"Then why doesn't this plan include anything to cool concrete?"

 _Cooling concrete? Why would they need to cool that thing?_ "Other dams didn't need concrete to be cooled."

"They weren't few feet shy of seven hundred feet." With a long history with shinobi and mutual hatred for each other, all great nations had isolationist policy when it came to building projects. Any company from a foreign nation can easily leave weak spot in an infrastructure if they won international bidding. This policy didn't hurt when it came to small and medium project. But for grand projects like Yamahime Dam, lack of experience could cause effort and money to be wasted. "Tell you what, I watched documentaries on Dam similar in scale. I can give you written description if you want."

"What do you want in exchange?"

"You will tutor me in course materials."

 _'That would be a real help for my sprained ankle.'_

* * *

OxoxO

* * *

 **Sorry it took me so long to post an update. I was busy really busy with preparation for preliminary exam for a government job tomorrow.**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed the update.**


	14. Objective : Red Eye

**I want to start off this note by apologizing to those who are following this story for updating this story so late. But I have excuses for that.**

 **First, I didn't get the govt job that I mentioned few chapters ago. I passed the MCQ and written portion but I failed on practical test. So I had to sulk in the corner.**

 **Second, Ramadan. Anyone who knows about it can guess how tired some can get after a whole day of fasting.**

 **And finally, I got a promotion in my current job from Data Entry Operator to Data Entry Supervisor just after Eid. It took me few days get used to new responsibilities. But I am managing.**

 **Again I am sorry because I had to half this chapter but I think I have been absent from duty to you guys enough. Hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

 **OxoxO**

* * *

Being a prankster, Naruto knew Hidden Leaf's underground sewerage tunnel like the back of his hand. In his venture into sewerage tunnels, he found that there was a hole in a tunnel's wall that sometime emptied fresh water into the tunnel. In his childish mind, he thought that it was there to make human waste flow faster. But surely Hidden Leaf's authority wouldn't be so stupid to waste water to make shit flow better. My conclusion was, they didn't. So the question that naturally came to mind was who did and why. Then again it was just a hole in sewerage tunnel so it wasn't important for me to keep in the forefront of my mind.

Then a watch-rat got drenched in water coming out of it and surprisingly the water was warm. So he observed the hole for a whole day. His observation let me know that hot water flowed through that hole in every 3 hours which would be unusual without a diligent attendant or an automated system. But there wasn't any hot spring bath in a mile radius. If the water came from outside of that range then surely it would've cooled down before getting to the hole. This called for looking into.

So I wasn't surprised when a clone of mine found an underground lab at the other end of the narrower side tunnel. Now you might want to ask what was so much water was used here for. The answer is, "To light up the place."

A reservoir with capacity of approximately 10,000 liters was built there. A pipe filled it up with water from river in about half a kilometer distance. Water discharge and Intake were controlled with help of ingenious system that utilized hollow metal cylinders, pipe, switch and counterweights.

Since the water flowed into the reservoir continuously, something had to be done with the excess electricity. That's where a secondary reservoir came in. water flowed into it after turning the turbine. Several immersion water heater rod was hung from ceiling above. They were turned on and off same way as primary reservoir's discharge valve. Though there was another switch that was probably turned off while the owner was working here and may be he turned it on when he felt like taking a hot bath.

I was awed by all of this. Sure there were several flaws in this system but it would be insulting to the guy who built this place to not acknowledge him as a genius. It was a miracle that this system was still functional without regular maintenance.

At first I thought I had found one of Orochimaru's lab where he experimented on human. I had to throw away several body parts, mostly bones, away. This lab was used for human experimentation for sure but it didn't belong to Orochimaru.

From the notes I found here, a ninja named Hiruko built this place during 2nd Great Ninja War. Although he wasn't searching for immortality like Orochimaru, his objective no less selfish. He used people as Guinee pig for his research on incorporating bloodline limit into his own body.

It's a shame that all the samples he collected in his hay day was rotten and contaminated long before I found this place. Of course I wouldn't use his method. That relied too much on body modification and it gave off the feeling of Shou Tucker's human transmutation from Fullmetal Alchemist. I liked my current body as it was, thank you very much. But I kept his notes in a storage seal. Who knows when they might be of use to me?

Dates on those notes indicated that they were more than a decade old. I thought Hiruko may have died during a war. But after some digging, I found out that Hiruko actually chased out of the Leaf years before Orochimaru was.

As this lab was off-the-grid, both water and electricity wise, no utility line led to it. Only thing the previous owner would have needed to bring here would be lab equipment and food. It was spacious, about 40 meters in length, 25 meters in width and there were 3 layers in this underground lab. Perfect place to make a hideout.

"Ugh, where am I?" Sasuke stirred up from his chloroform induced sleep. He had to. Half a minute ago I placed a mug that I left lemon water in for two days couple of inches away from his nose. Anyone who ever forgot to clean lemon water bottle would know how badly it stinks if you don't clean that bottle with hot, black coffee. You can torture people with it. That's how bad it gets.

"More than seven feet under." Sasuke looked at me from his position.

Tonight, after we enjoyed the festival, I told Sasuke to follow me. I told him it was time I would tell him all I could about his clan's massacre. So he followed me without a question. I kept my sensory jutsu on to scan our vicinity for any tail. Luckily there weren't any. But for extra caution, I lead Sasuke through a narrow, dark alley where I made few pairs of shadow clones to go anywhere they felt like. Leaving a pair behind us, we left the alley. Then I took Sasuke to another alley where there was a manhole cover. There I unsealed 2 gas masks out from my storage seal. I placed one over my face and gave him the other one. Moment after he put his mask on, he passed out from the chloroform I put inside it.

I wasn't going to carry him all the way. So I made another shadow clone who warged into him. Entrance to this place wasn't very far from there.

"Why am I inside this thing? Is this some kind of joke you are trying to pull?"

After getting in, ' _Sasuke_ ' went inside an iron cage I placed inside the primary reservoir few days ago for this moment. Right now the reservoir was empty and dry. But that could be changed by opening a valve.

"Do you see any camera in my hands? If I really wanted to pull a joke, then you would've been model for a photoshoot in less clothes. No I brought you here for serious reason. As for why you are in a cage, well I don't want you to run off before I tell you the whole thing. I know you have tunnel vision when it comes to revenge."

Sasuke just narrowed his eyes at my reply. "Who killed my clan if it wasn't Itachi?"

"What good is it going to do to you knowing all that now?"

"What!?"

"You are surprised as expected. Do you want to know why you are inside that cage?" Smoldering glare was the only response I got from him. Seeing as he isn't going to give any vocal reply, I continued. "There is a jounin in our village named Kakashi Hatake. In bingo book, his alias is Kakashi of the Sharingan. His case shows that implanted sharingan helps a ninja tremendously. But after going through his medical records, I found out that his sharingan is perpetually active which is why he needs to keep his sharingan covered outside of any serious battle. Even using one implanted sharingan drains his chakra so much that he needs a week long bed rest to recover. In my opinion; it's more hassle than it is worth. But I have a theory. Kakashi's sharingan drains him so much because it was implanted after it was activated. But what would happen if someone implants a potential sharingan eye before it is activated? Of course, there is no telling if the sharingan would ever activate or not. After all, not all the Uchihas had their precious eyes. But if it activates there is a chance a non-Uchiha could use his sharingan like a real Uchiha."

"You…." Sasuke was shaking at my implication like any sane person would. But this was a minor concern. I had to do what I needed to do. "You did all this for my eyes!"

"Sasuke, you know what this place is?" The abrupt change in topic made Sasuke pause. May be he was thinking why I would ask something like this out of the blue. "Years ago this place belonged a scientist ninja. He used this place to run experiments on human test subjects. He was trying to find a way to incorporate bloodline traits from other people in his own body. Few weeks back when I found this lab, I found his notes about his methods and progress. Sure he wasn't successful in his research but it was still fascinating. Unfortunately, I didn't find any of his biological samples intact to continue from where he left off. And unlike his time, there isn't any war going on. So I can't just go out and find someone with bloodline. Since I am not going to be a ninja until few more years, I was about to put my project to become a ninja with a strong bloodline limit in back burner. But then I remembered, I have someone who is going to do as I said for few more days. Someone who has a bloodline limit to boot."

"You are not going to kill me without a fight!"

"Who said I am going to fight you? You will have to fight an element of nature."

"Element of nature?"

"Water." My clone standing by the valve opened it on his cue and water from the river started to slowly fill up the reservoir. "Your clan was famous for expertise in fire style jutsu, weren't they? Do you know water is stronger than fire on equal power? Just so you know, if you plan on evaporating water, there are more water where they are coming from. It will take about ten minutes before water level rises to the top of the cage and spitting fire will only make you drain you of chakra and you will get boiled in water you warmed."

"You think people of this village will leave you be when they find out you killed me?" Each sentence Sasuke said contained more venom than the one before. He was seething. Shaking with anger.

"Do you still think I am an idiot who craves people's attention? I will admit, I won't be the sharpest kunai in a box but I am not so naïve to think I will get away with killing you. I had time to plan to cover my track. There is no fingerprint on your person; I have been keeping my chakra suppressed for about two hours and any smell lingering on you will wash up after your bath. They won't find any evidence of me being in your personal zone at the moment of your death. It's about six in the morning. When I send the signal in few minutes, one of the clones that took your place will make his way to river and he will make sure people will see him. Meanwhile, I will get your body out of the cage and bring it to river a bit downstream. The clone will dispel after his jump and your body will float up few minutes later. Your body will be taken to the hospital for post mortem. All they will find out that you drowned yourself in the river. Connecting this with whole sale murder of your clan, they will conclude that you committed suicide because you couldn't handle the loss and loneliness any more. Before they bury your body, I will arrange accident of some sort for me that will warrant an eye transplant. I checked the eye bank registry. They have very few eyes as it is and all of them are already lined up for transplant. You can guess what they will do at the situation." I showed him a picture I drew while he was sleeping, teenage Naruto with Shouto's burn mark and blue-black heterochromia eyes. "Do you think I will look cooler with burn mark? I think this look will be a lady killer." That did it.

"How dare you think you will get away with stealing my eyes! I am an Uchiha! They won't pull out my eyes just to replace yours!"

"So you believe they wouldn't desecrate your body for an idiot like me? You will be sorely disappointed to know that as military assets, I am more important for this village than you are. No matter how respected your clan was, you won't be any good if you are dead. I know you are angry but it is the truth. However, out of gratitude to you for your eye, I think it's only fair if you get something in return. Since your sacrifice going to give me a huge boost, I will kill the person who pulled the string and made Itachi kill your clan like a puppet."

"Who? Who was it!?"

"What's use to know his name now?"

"Tell me his name, damnit!"

"You barely have five minutes to live. Why don't you accept the fact that I will avenge your clan for you? Isn't that reassuring enough? Just say your prayer and be happy that you are going to finally meet your parents in after life where death has no power. You will have your family by your side for all eternity."

A drowning man catches at straw. This proverb never felt so true when Sasuke started shooting fire ball at me at first. A quick replacement jutsu moved me out of line of fire. This happened few more times before Sasuke started to make bigger fire ball to shoot at the cage's bars to melt them. He knew it was useless but he did it anyway. When water rose up to his chest, he started pulling the bars. In seconds water rose higher and he couldn't breathe in anymore for fireball jutsu. All he could do was glaring. And he was glaring at me with intense hate. So intense that it turned his black eyes into red.

Sasuke had awakened his sharingan and my objective had been accomplished.

With a quick body flicker, I went at top of the cage and grabbed the back of his head with my right hand. He had already spent most of his reserve with his jutsus. Absorbing the final dreg didn't even take 10 seconds.

 **"You should've killed the Uchiha. He is going to cause trouble for you in the future."**

' _May be he is. But I am willing to take the chance._ '

* * *

 **OxoxO**

* * *

 **Note: If anyone interested to be my beta please let me know.**


	15. Wrong Conclusion

**It's 5 days until one year anniversary of this story. And in this time, 10 people shy of 700 are following this story and 522 people have favourited it.**

* * *

 **OxoxO**

* * *

 _You have tunnel vision when it comes to revenge._

 _Do you still think I am an idiot who craves people's attention?_

Sasuke jolted awake as those words kept repeating in his mind over and over again. He was sweating after going through the nightmare. There is no other explanation. After all, if it wasn't a nightmare then the best scenario after waking would be to be greeted by darkness since Naruto wanted his eyes. May be, Naruto just wanted to prank him for laugh as he remembered how easily he was duped to wear a gas mask only to lose his conscious after an unfamiliar smell invaded his nose. Who knows what Naruto did to him when he was unconscious?

But the nightmare felt so real. So much that, he could still recall the feeling of being suffocated by water with perfect clarity. It was so vivid. Were they really nightmare or did they really happen?

After his hyperventilation subsided, he took in his surroundings. He was on a couch and the room he was in was unfamiliar. Unfamiliarity alarmed him considering last time he remember waking up. He stood up from his position on the couch as calmly and as quietly as he could. He need to get out of this place right now.

' _Why, you don't want to know the truth?_ ' He whirled around to find the source of the voice. But he didn't see anyone. After waiting few moments for someone to come out, he chalked the voice as his imagination.

' _Trust me, I am not someone or something imaginary._ '

"Who is there?" this time he shouted to voice. Not having anything to protect himself with made him feel vulnerable. He didn't want another repeat of last night.

' _What happened last night was for your own benefit, no matter how unbelievable it might be seemed to you._ '

"Where are you? Come out."

' _I am afraid I am not able do that. Because I am inside your head._ '

"My head?"

' _Yep. My original thought you might wake up and try to run to someone to babble about what happened last night. He can't have that. So he left me to stay in your head and keep you company._ '

"And why shouldn't I do just that?"

' _For long term, you won't get to know what probably caused Itachi to go berserk. For short term, I get to make your chakra system go haywire and cause you to go into coma. If any Yamanaka check your memories afterward, he will label everything that happened last night as something your brain cooked up to keep yourself entertained while you slept. Or maybe I should erase last memories just to be safe. That could save myself a lot of trouble._ '

"You are baiting me, aren't you?"

There was a sigh inside his head. He didn't know how he should feel about his situation. There was someone, most likely Naruto, inside his head. And he was dangling the same bait. ' _If it's about last night, then I am sorry I had to do it that way. But it was the best course of action to make you believe I few things about your clan and bloodline that you don't know. I know at this time you will only listen to someone who can make you stronger. I know I won't be able to provide you the strength you desire. So I decided to help you activate your bloodline. All the act of villainy was necessary for that._ '

"What do you mean?"

'Why don't you s _tand before a mirror and send chakra to your eyes? You will understand._ '

Sasuke was torn between running away and doing as instructed. But he realized soon that Naruto might have something planned in case he tried to flee. So he went to bathroom to see what Naruto-inside-his-head told was true or not. And when his eyes glowed red in his mirror image.

' _Neat, isn't it?_ '

"How do you know about awakening sharingan?" there was a long pause after his question.

' _Can you look at the clock for me?_ ' the voice asked after some time of making up his mind.

Sasuke looked at the clock over the fridge. It was little before 9 o'clock. ' _My original will be home any minute now. You can take something out of the fridge for your breakfast._ ' He was about to say no but his stomach growled loudly at the prospect of food. So he went over to the fridge and opened it to look for food. He took out a loaf of bread and a carton of milk. He didn't have to wait for very long. Naruto entered his apartment soon while he was half way through his meal. He gave a nod of approval at seeing him eat and went to his room. Judging by the sound, he was taking a shower. Minutes later he came out of shower.

"You are done with breakfast." It irked Sasuke that Naruto was acting so nonchalant even after what he did.

"I am. Now are you going to tell me what last night was all about?"

"Sure." He said as he sat across from him on the dining table. "But didn't my split spirit explain anything to you?"

"It wasn't satisfactory."

"If you are looking for verification, then you should know that my answer isn't going to change."

"Then tell me this, how did you know the way to unlock sharingan?"

"How long would you guess that I can do this Split Spirit thing?"

Sasuke thought hard on this question. Despite being a bad student months ago, Naruto was very good at pranking people. Rarely any of his pranks were unsuccessful. If he thought about it, maybe he used the same jutsu to gather information about his victim to prank them. Was he implying that he used this jutsu on his clansmen?

"Are you saying that you used this jutsu on members of my clan?"

"I might have."

"Was it Itachi?"

"No. I took one look at that guy and decided using this jutsu on him was a no-no."

"Why? Because he was powerful?"

"Partly yes. But mostly because he was always alert. If my split spirit ever entered his head, he would've noticed that in an instant."

"You sound like you respect him."

"You have no idea how much pressure he was under. And going through puberty didn't make it easy either. Not to mention he was suffering from a rare lung disease. If he doesn't deserve respect for doing his duty despite all that, then I don't know who else does."

"What are you saying?" Surely if his brother had a fatal illness he would've known about it. Itachi never acted like anything was out of the ordinary.

"I am saying that he was the perfect candidate for a mastermind to manipulate to annihilate his whole clan."

"You are saying that…"

"Itachi was just a puppet in the whole thing? Yes."

Rage unlike anything he felt before coursed through him and his sharingan flared. He was ready to punch, to _obliterate_ , something. "Who?"

"I don't know for sure. I have a suspect though. Only things I can tell you about your clans' tragedy are how and why?"

"Who is your suspect?"

"Orochimaru of the Sannin is my only suspect up to now."

"Why?"

"He has an ambition to learn all the jutsu in the existence and also, he was searching for immortality. I knew sharingan would help him in first objective and later I learned it could help him in his second quest too. That might have been enough motivation for him."

It had to be a joke. Sharingan can't grant immortality to someone. If it did then his clan would be alive today. "Sharingan doesn't grant immortality."

"Neither does Fountain of Youth." Fountain of Youth? Is that something from folklore? "But tell me have you ever heard someone in your clan mentioning a jutsu called Izanagi?"

"No."

"Well, this particular jutsu helps the wielder rewrite his fate. According to what I know, it helps the caster take a u-turn before they could go to the other side."

"Where did you learn about this jutsu? If my clan could use jutsu like this then I would've known."

"One of Lord Second's account on Senju-Uchiha conflict in Warring States Era. As for you not knowing about this jutsu, I am not surprised you haven't heard of it. According to Lord Second's account, this jutsu makes the caster blind in one eye and it's impossible to cure. That's why it had been labelled as a forbidden ocular jutsu."

So this Orochimaru fellow wanted as many spare sharingans he could get his hands on. This whay he he after each use, he could just throw out the used sharingan and replace it another. Despicable. When he destroys Orochimaru, Sasuke vowed, he would kill the man before he could transplant the next sharingan. "How did Orochimaru manipulate Itachi?"

"Did you know someone named Shisui from your clan?" Naruto took a scroll from his scroll holder on the table and opened it as he asked the question. The scroll had 3 storage seals in it. What he found strange was that, there were unfamiliar writings underneath all of them. Maybe Naruto was trying his hands on making his own secret language. Some kids from their class did it too.

"He was Itachi's friend. He committed suicide few days before my clan was massacred. Military Police suspected that it was a murder and they suspected Itachi for that crime."

"They had very good reason to suspect about it being a murder. Here," Naruto put his right index finger on the first seal and with a pulse of chakra, he unsealed a file. "This is his post-mortem report. Go to page five. I highlighted the important bits."

Sasuke took the file from Naruto's hand and went to page five as he said. What he read made him tighten his fist. First highlighted part read, ' **Poison was found in the victim's system. Our investigation suggest that this poison was used to cause the victim's chakra network to go haywire and deplete his reserve at faster rate.** ' Second bit read, ' **Both eyes of the victim had been removed forcefully without following any surgical procedure.** '

"Shisui Uchiha was exceptionally skilled in genjutsu. His hypnotic genjutsu was so powerful that many enemies would turn tail just after seeing his face. What's more his Sharingan granted him an ability called Kotoamatsukami. If he used this to plant instruction in someone's mind, he would think what he was doing was on his own volition. I think Orochimaru eliminated him first to get a hold of his sharingan. Then he discreetly used it to plant suggestion in Itachi's mind to eliminate his clan."

"Why Itachi? Why not someone else?"

"He is a genius. And he was an Anbu captain." That was all he knew about his brother other than 'he was kind and caring'. He watched as Naruto unsealed some books and a file from other 2 seals. He offered the books to Sasuke first. Sasuke glanced at the covers. All of them were Bingo Books from other nations and bookmarks were sticking out of them. All bookmarks had 'Itachi is here' written on them. He first opened the one from Hidden Leaf. He was listed as an S-rank criminal. Some of his strength had been mentioned on the page. Closing this book, he opened the one from Hidden Stone. Naruto put 2 bookmarks in this one. One was about Itachi and the other was about a masked Leaf Anbu member codenamed Crow. Itachi was listed as high A-rank in threat level and Crow was listed as S-rank. Sasuke could guess that Crow was Itachi's codename in Anbu. How Naruto knew about this, he had to wonder. Same thing was on other bingo books. After he was done with the bingo books, he took the file. It was labeled as confidential. Opening it, Sasuke saw that this file contained Itachi's medical records. As far as he knew his brother, he was always healthy. But this file showed that he was wrong about that. All medical checkups showed that Itachi was having trouble with his respiratory system that worsened slowly over the time. And last few records mentioned slight deterioration in eye sight.

"So why do you think he picked Itachi?" Naruto asked as he put the file down.

"Orochimaru, or whoever it was, targeted Itachi because of his declining health. He would kill our whole clan. I am guessing he was also commanded to commit suicide after the massacre was done. But somehow, Itachi was able to break free of Kotoamatsukami's influence after he killed our parents. After the situation dawned on him, he decided to desert the village before the villagers found out." Sasuke took a deep breath to calm his nerve. "He couldn't tell me the truth. So he told me get strong. To hate him. He told me to face him when I have the same eyes as him. I think.. I think he did that to make me seek him out in the future so that he can tell me the truth."

"Maybe he thought that losing his own life at the hands of his younger brother will be enough to repent for his unwilling crime. And you would get your mangekyo if your feeling of self-loathing and regret for killing your brother is very strong." He looked at Naruto questioningly. "Look up Lord Second's journal about Mangekyo Sharingan."

"Did you tell me all this out of goodness of your heart or is there a motive behind it?"

"Last night's act left a lasting impression on you, didn't it?" Sasuke scowled at the mention of the last night. If he was skilled in genjutsu he would've put the smiling blonde in the nastiest genjutsu possible. "I have a suspicion that whoever it was behind your clan's massacre is also responsible for me being an orphan. In fact, this is the only reason I am not hundred percent sure about Orochimaru's involvement. If it's Orochimaru, then I have people who can tell me about his weakness. But if it's someone else, then I am up against an unknown foe. Don't you think it's better with two pairs of eyes looking for someone like him instead of just one?"

So his classmate was also after avenging his family. He could relate to that. But Naruto never seemed to be someone who holds grudge. "So you want to avenge your family like me?"

"I am not. I can't tell you all the details but I have a feeling that the person who targeted my parents will come for me too. My parents gave up their lives so that I could live. I won't let their sacrifice be for nothing."

"Who are your parents?"

"That's a state secret. You will have access to that piece of information when you start sitting in Shinobi Council."

"Was either one of your parents a Yamanaka?"

"Could be. After all, I am blonde."

With the self-imposed burden of duty to kill his brother, a brother he still loved in the deepest part of his heart, off his shoulder, Sasuke felt much lighter. Now he was up against a stranger. He wouldn't have to suffer from guilt conscience for killing a stranger who manipulated his brother to massacre his family. But could he trust Naruto to aid him in his endeavor? Their reasons were different and Naruto was less enthusiastic about finding the man. With Naruto's help or on his own, either way he needs to get stronger. He WILL get stronger.

* * *

 **OxoxO**


	16. First Kill

Finally chapter 16 is here. Among all the chapters, this one had the longest journey. Seriously, this chapter was almost finished about a month and half ago but then a ransomware attacked my PC and since I couldn't pay the ransom, I lost over 500 GB of files. My anime collection, anime memes that I had collected since 2014, movies, TV series, all of it. So, I had to write this chapter from 0 and it turned out different than its previous version. Since its focus has changed, I changed its name from **Stray Root** to **First Kill**.

Also, this is the first chapter of this story that has been reviewed beta readers. I grateful to **DrkMidget** and **NarutoPotter1996**.

I hope you enjoy it.

0XoX0

I didn't mind when I noticed that Hinata had been avoiding me for the last few days. She needed the space and I was willing to give her that as much as she needed. But what I couldn't stand was watching her family bullying her in the name of training. What was with these ninja assholes? Couldn't they just let the girl learn at her own pace? Standing there in Hyuga clan's dojo and watch a sweet girl like her being reprimanded over and over again was making me more aggravated by seconds. Thankfully, Hanabi entered the dojo before I had to begin to put an effort to suppress my anger. Seeing his younger and more talented daughter, Hiashi stopped his training session with Hinata and focused on her instead.

"Hey, Hinata."

"Hi... Naruto."

"Your dad finished your training session for today. Do you think you can hang out with me for a few hours?"

Today was the academy's weekly holiday. And I couldn't wait for the morning to come. Something I had been waiting for had happened last night. And I was restless to share that with Hinata.

"Um, I.. wanted to water the plants in my mother's flower garden today."

"Hinata," she looked me in the eyes as I said her name. "I know that you are trying to avoid me. No, don't deny it." Whatever weak protest she could formulate in few seconds didn't leave her lips. Letting her explain her reason would be cruel. The only reason she could have would make her seem rude. She wouldn't want that and so few words into her explanation, she would shut her mouth. "I might not have romantic experience but I have seen enough of them to know how they usually begin."

"I am sorry. For…"

"You don't have to say that. If our position was reversed, I would do the same."

"You are not upset with me?"

"Not in the slightest. You need some time and distance from me and I am willing to cooperate. You are my only girl-friend after all." Relief washed over her face at my answer. That was good. She was one of the few friends I got in this new life. In a world, where you have to always watch your back, every friend counts. It was because of her that I said the truth to the gang. I didn't want her to fall for me believing I am the original Naruto and then get her heartbroken when I tell her the truth. I might have another option where I would not tell her. But then I am not very fond of the idea of taking advantage of a girl's romantic feelings. "But you should know that I want to help you. Call it my way to repent. However, my time in the village is limited. I wouldn't be able to provide any help to you when I am at Kin-en."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. Go freshen up. I have an early birthday present for you."

"Naruto, you don't have to buy anything for me."

"It didn't cost me a Ryu. But I am kind of on a tight schedule, so the sooner we could get it done with, the better."

"Okay. I am going to get ready right now."

"I will be at the main gate." She left in a hurry to get ready. If it was any other girl I would be worried about how long it would take for them to get ready. Thankfully I don't have to worry about that. Hinata didn't care about her looks or outfit.

"Why do you associate with her?" I hadn't moved more than 10 paces before I heard that. Considering most of the main house disliked Hinata, it could've been any one of them. But the voice sounded very young. So my quick guess was that it was Neji. I will give him credit though. He was badmouthing clan patriarch's daughter right under his roof.

"You are saying I shouldn't?"

"You are a social pariah, so I guess you jumped at the opportunity to get close to someone from a noble clan. Didn't matter that she was weak." So Neji was aware of my social standing. That didn't happen in canon. I guess he bothered to learn about me after seeing me hanging out with Hinata in the last few days. If he was there to belittle me, good luck. I hear them through one ear and out through the other.

"You have something to say. Say it." I encouraged him to go on. "I promise to disregard everything with my utmost effort." His narrowed eyes showed that he didn't like the fact I was willing to hear his piece and disregard his words anyway.

"Someone like you, who has been a pariah from the beginning, is fated to be a pariah for the rest of his life. Your association with our heiress isn't going to change that."

"Do you believe fate is written on in stone?"

"No one can run away from his fate. It's absolute."

"Do you see that stone ornament there?" Japanese style clan estate would feel less Japanese without stone ornament here and there. "Do you think it was a stone ornament from the very beginning?" He looked confused at my hint. Wasn't surprising. Even though he was intelligent, he was still a boy under ten years. He could mull over what I said for a few hours. "Even if fate is written on stone, you should know that stones are not unbreakable."

"What do you know about fate?"

"There is nothing to know about fate. All you can do about your fate is to believe. And everyone is entitled to believe whatever they want until someone proves them wrong. Then they believe something else."

"What do you believe about your fate?"

"I believe that it exists. Otherwise, I wouldn't exist." And that is a surprising motherfucker. I mean, I never thought that this would be in my future. "As for fate in general, hmm let's see." I knew the perfect example that correlates with my belief on the matter. I adopted thinking pose just for the fun of it. "It's like a piece of paper."

"Paper?"

"Yes, paper. You can do anything with a piece of paper. Write a poem on it, draw a picture on it, make origami piece out of it and so on, you get the point. But if you don't do anything with it, then it is at the mercy of other people, humidity in the air and insects. The first factor doesn't have any obligation to keep your paper in good condition. Humidity turns paper yellow and insects eat paper."

0XoX0

"Rijuan, why do you have an unconscious ninja here?"

Whatever Hinata might've expected to see as a gift, I was sure as hell she didn't expect to see one of Danzo's pawns laid unconscious on the ground surrounded by my clones.

"He is Rui, one of Danzo's Root-nin. He was about to flee the village with few valuable items from his master's collection. Unlucky for him, I knew his plan for a while and since I would need to get used to it in the future anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to make a traitor like him my first kill." She looked at me with disbelief in how flat I made my tone sounded. "Don't worry; I won't make you bear witness to any part of his execution."

"Why didn't you tell Danzo about his treachery?"

"If I told the old-man about his agent's treachery, then I wouldn't get the items he stole from him. I am new in this world and I need to take every advantage I can get my hands on. Besides, if he knew that his training method was unsuccessful in producing soldiers perfectly loyal to him, he would up the harshness of his training, which would hamper my plan to turn a soldier or two of his to my side in the future."

"Then why did you bring me here?"

"He is a very skilled medic. It would be a waste of medical skill to let it die with its bearer, don't you think? It was one of my clones' idea actually; to try to transfer his knowledge to you. It would be my last help for you before I leave for the capital. If you don't want it, I won't go through with it."

"You didn't think about taking this skill for yourself?"

"I can't stand the sight of live internal organs. That's why I never thought about taking up the medical sector for study. I would've probably fainted in every anatomy class."

"Why did you chose me then? Wouldn't someone else would be better?"

"In the short time I have known you, I know that you are a gentle, kind girl. In my opinion, it's unfair to raise someone like you to become a killer. I think I wouldn't be wrong to assume that you will be devastated with every one of your kills. That's why my clone thought that you should be the one to receive this knowledge, to save the lives of your friends and allies. Besides, I think your clan's Byakugan is too great a tool to not be used in the medical field. So what do you say?"

Of course, Sakura would've been a better candidate since she was going to be trained by Tsunade anyway. But as she didn't lack confidence, unlike Hinata, she had to be the one to make her choice about what she wants to specialize in. I gave her motivation, as minuscule as it was but I won't maker choice for herself. As for Hinata, if she wasn't showed choices before her, she would be forced to become what her family wanted her to be. Seriously, did any Hyuga ever ventured in learning medical art? They could've been the greatest practitioners of this field. But noooo, they decided to go with the lethal acupuncture route.

From canon, I knew that Hinata was good at making healing balm. But whether she was interested in medical art, I didn't know. Seriously, that was just lazy writing on Kishimoto's part. And that's where I appreciate My Hero Academia more than I do Naruto. If you are going to create so many characters, at least shed some lights on others.

"I would... I would like to accept your gift very much." After few moments of indecision, Hinata said with determination in her eyes. I am glad that she accepted. Otherwise, she would be a possible testimony on a murder case.

"Then let's get to work."

The clone that was leeching chakra from Rui's head moved to left. I doubt he had any left. I sat on his right. Hinata sat behind his head. I placed my right palm on my side of his head. As I instructed, Hinata placed her left palm on my right and right palm on the other side of Rui's head. My clone placed his right palm over Hinata's hand vertically so that his hand was touching Rui's head too.

"Hinata, mold chakra in both of your palms. Do you think you can hold it for about an hour?"

"I will try my best."

"That's all I am asking."

With our one-way energy flow system in place, now it was my turn to act as a power supply. When I felt chakra begin molding in Hinata's palm, I converted my chakra to hers and pushed a steady amount of it into Rui's head. My clone's role in this process was that of a lift pump. He was to match Hinata's chakra on his end and start pulling on the supplied chakra that made to the other side of Rui's head. Then he would pull on the chakra stream and feed to Hinata's chakra network through her palm.

My clone came up with the idea after the bug clone deployed to keep an eye on him transmitted the info about his preparation to desert Leaf Village. On the spur of the moment, he named this process Credit Transfer.

There was no telling how long this process will take and how much of Rui's knowledge will be copied. When I appropriated knowledge from Fu, we were connected on a sub-conscious level and I was doing it with my chakra. I doubt my converted chakra matches Hinata's 100%. But then again, in my case, Fu's, the donor's, hand was touching mine, the receiver's, head. That's why I kept feeding and absorbing chakra to and from his system until info flow trickled to a halt. By my estimation, it took me about 20 minutes. To know for sure when info flow would trickle down, after 10 minutes a clone of mine will enter her head using a Yamanaka Jutsu. I just hope it works.

0XoX0

My hands were trembling as I made my 4th cup of coffee that night. Getting this trembling under control was hard. I could try to sleep it off but maybe it would be better to let it run its course. Hinata was worried the whole way when I walked her home. I was just glad I was somehow able to reach my apartment.

"Staying awake so late into the night and drinking this much coffee at such a young age." I almost jumped at Kakashi's voice. "What's gotten into you?"

"Kakashi, how did you feel after you had your first kill?"

Just a bit ago, I saw my face in the bathroom mirror. Although there wasn't any bag under my eyes they were starting to become bloodshot. Kakashi took a good look at my face and sat opposite to me before saying anything.

"I didn't feel anything at the moment. We were in the middle of a fight, so I didn't have time to process what I had just done. But after the adrenaline wore off, it hit me like a brick."

"The man I killed was helpless when I shoved my knife in his throat. I made a plan for killing him weeks before that day. I thought that since some of my wires for emotions are cut, maybe I wouldn't feel anything. I was wrong. They weren't cut, just heavily damaged. My hands shook more and more as my knife inched closer to his throat. There were split seconds where I wanted to turn back."

"Why didn't you?"

"Kakashi, do you think the world has been kind to you? My old world might not have been kind to us but no one could enlist in military service before they are eighteen. Here, I will have to wear a headband in four years and unlike many other kids in this village, I don't have much of a choice to say no to that. So why not get an early start?" I raised my half-emptied coffee mug before saying the next bit. "Here to the system that made me do something that I never thought I would ever do, even at my lowest."

"Do you feel like you are broken?"

"Kakashi, I was broken each time I lost a family member. After the fourth time, you kinda get used to it. I was taught killing someone is a sin. But I didn't feel remorse when I killed my target. It's just that, the memory of that few minutes are playing in my head on a loop. It's like watching two girls one cup video for the first time. You feel like vomiting every time you see any ice cream cup and after a few days, the memory goes so far back in your head, they don't flash over your eyes anymore. Good thing, I have something to tell myself whenever it flashes before my eyes."

"What would that be?"

"My target was a traitor."

"Naruto, it's a strong accusation to make."

"Codename Rui, assistant to the chief medic in Danzo's Root. He was planning on smuggling out a scroll from this village and sell it to the highest bidder. That scroll to be precise." I pointed to the scroll resting between some ramen cups. "That's the only thing he stole from Root Base." As for the jutsus, he made copies of scrolls then stashed them in a storage scroll. I am not giving that up. So I left it at Hiruko's lab.

"If this scroll was so vital, then why are you keeping it like this?"

"Who do you know that hangs their scrolls from the ceiling?" Kakashi didn't look like he was convinced by my reason. He took the scroll and opened it. Just after unfurling the scroll few inches, he closed it and put in his pocket.

"I will take this scroll to the Hokage." He stood from the table to leave immediately. But then he looked at me with a question. "You know coffee keeps people awake, right?"

"Well, I can't buy sleeping pills or wine. Lemon water would probably give me diabetes if I drink that much in a single night. I thought about going for a run but then I thought I might attract the attention of that bowl cut, green spandex wearing fellow."

"Would you mind if I use Genjutsu on you?"

"Do you plan on surfing my memories while you are at it?"

"No. I am not a Yamanaka." I wasn't one either but I knew their Jutsu.

"Good. Because if you did, you will only get to see two girls one cup video."

0XoX0


End file.
